Law enforcement in FL wasted little time inwards initiating its crackdown on suspected illegal one-armed bandit machines after Gov. Bokkos DeSantis (R) lowest week signed legislating allowing seized machines and associated money to suit res publica property.
DeSantis signed House Bill 5203 which allows immediate payment “and other things of value” ilk gaming machines seized past practice of law enforcement to be maintained and sold by the state. Since the governor signed the statute into law, the FL Gaming Control Commission’s Division of Gaming Enforcement has carried come out several raids of businesses advertised as arcades and amusement centers that say officials allege are running illegal gaming operations.
The FGCC, assisted past the Sunshine State Highway Patrol and county sheriffs’ offices inwards William Rowan Hamilton and Jefferson, late executed II seek warrants at businesses suspected of living accommodations illegal slot devices. The gaming bureau yesterday reported that it confiscated 179 illegal gaming machines and arrested cinque individuals.
The raids were conducted at a business organisation called the Coff33 Cafe set inwards Andrew D. White Springs and the Rio Arcade in Port St. Lucie.
BREAKING: Gaming Control Commission Special Agents, @FLHSMV’s Rapid Response Team, JCSO, and HCSO create arrests, closed cut down illegal play houses, and seize 179 suspected illegal play devices! #FLGaming #LawAndOrder pic.twitter.com/hq0TkBF9oi
— Sunshine State Gaming Control Commission (@FLGamingControl) April 10, 2024
Arcades on Alert
Florida is littered with retail stores advertising arcade games, but many of the businesses permit customers to run a risk for a chance at winning hard currency or vouchers that tin can live used as put in credit.
Legal one-armed bandit machines in Florida are limited to casinos operated past the Seminole Tribe and pari-mutuel facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Florida law enforcement officials say arcades, inwards increase to violating the state’s gambling laws, often draw offensive characters.
“Oftentimes, these types of locations draw in secondary crimes that put up live detrimental to communities,” an FGCC voice told ABC27 in Tallahassee. “They have got a really electronegative force on communities.”
A adult male was murdered lately exterior the Rio Arcade. The secondary felonious activity is an added reason out for natural law enforcement to accept action mechanism on suspected illegal gaming dens.
The FGCC purely governs expansion slot simple machine regularisation in Florida,” the government agency tweeted on x this week. “They are sound only when inward the eighter pari-mutuel facilities inwards Miami-Dade and Broward counties and at sextet facilities ladder by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.”
Many of the arcades use names and brands associated with Las Vegas.
Along with the Rio Arcade using the figure of the Rio Las Vegas, there’s a Caesars Arcade inward St. Petersburg Campaign that uses the iconic Caesars Palace logotype on the retail striptease mall’s exterior. There’s also a Treasure Island Arcade inward Lake Charles Frederick Worth Beach and a Tropicana Arcade inward Port St. Lucie.
Illegal Gambling Penalty Increases
Along with going a natural law to earmark Everglade State to keep back seized illegal play machines and associated financial assets, tell lawmakers are mulling a vizor that would elevate penalties for persons found shamed of operating wrongful gaming enterprises. In February, the state Senate passed a banknote that would growth illegal play penalties from a second-degree violation to a third-degree felony.
Senate Bill 1046 is currently beingness considered inwards the tell House of Representatives. If the peak is passed and signed by DeSantis, retell offenders would human face a second-degree felony on the indorsement offense and a first-degree felony on subsequent charges.
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