Officers Execute Illegal Gambling Machine Raid In Georgia

Authorities in the state of Georgia have become just as fed up as in other states with illegal gambling machines. Police executed another raid on Wednesday, this time at four Dougherty County convenience stores.

Hemang Patel was indicted on seven counts of gambling and racketeering. Patel is the owner of A&J Food Mart on Newton Road in the county. The District attorney's office is gathering evidence they hope will help convict Patel on the racketeering charge.

Authorities did not stop at the four raids on Wednesday. They claim they will continue to bust these illegal gambling operations until all of the illegal machines are out of the county. It is a similar approach that is being taken throughout the state of Georgia.

"The money comes from people, sometimes who are receiving public assistance themselves," said Dougherty District Attorney Greg Edwards, according to WALB News, "That money goes to these gambling operations and does not come back to the state by way of taxes. It goes out of the country a lot of times."

It is not only Georgia that has been cracking down on these illegal operations. Other states have instructed their law enforcement to go after these illegal operations.

In Alabama, Governor Bob Riley has even set up a Gambling Task Force to seek out and bust establishments that are running illegal gambling machines. In Alabama the task is not as easy as in other states, many of the locations where the busts are taking place do not believe the machines they are using are illegal under Alabama law.

April 23, 2009
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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