David Cooke, Bibb County district attorney, Macon, Georgia (Courtesy photo)One day after calling on the Georgia General Assembly to make coin operated gaming machines illegal across the state, Macon Circuit District Attorney David Cooke filed a civil complaint against four amusement companies that own and lease the machines he wants banned.
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Cooke named four companies in the civil forfeiture suit that he said are master license holders of more than 400 gaming machines located at about 70 businesses across the state.
In addition to the companies—Statesboro firm S&W Amusements Inc., the Booray Group LLC of Savannah, Krishna Amusement Inc. and PNP amusement Games LLC—the civil complaint also names about 100 store owners and operators as defendants.
S&W CEO Samir Patel said he had no comment on the civil allegations.
Internal Revenue Service agents and employees of the Georgia Lottery, which licenses the machines, assisted in the investigation, the district attorney said.
Cooke also announced that criminal racketeering charges were filed against a Bibb County sheriff’s deputy who owned one of three stores housing the gaming machines and against four other individuals.
The DA said racketeering charges against Bibb County Deputy Rahim Jamal McCarley include allegations that he engaged in bribery, tax evasion and money laundering that allowed him to pocket nearly $500,000 in profits from what Cooke alleged was illegal gambling in his store.
Cooke also claimed that unnamed license holders bribed an unnamed state employee in return for “information and influence.” He didn’t elaborate.
Cooke accused the defendant companies of failing to pay taxes on more than $39 million in profits that were derived from the allegedly illegal operation of video gaming machines in 2017 and 2018. Cooke said customers paid more than $121 million playing games on the machines, and collected approximately $82 million in cash and prizes.
On Monday, Cooke called on state legislators, who will not convene again until next January, to pass a law banning the machines. Cooke’s call came two weeks after the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the felony gambling conviction of a Peach County restaurant owner over his operation of nine coin-operated game machines, which the appeals court said included only “appropriate types of games.”
The appellate court also ruled there is no state law that a cash payout would convert an otherwise legal coin-operated game into an illegal gambling device.
Cooke claimed that the companies holding licenses to lease the games set up “straw man” storefronts intended solely to make gaming machines available for allegedly illegal use. By doing so, Cooke said, the license holders could keep all the proceeds of the games instead of splitting them with store owners as state law requires. Cooke said that the storefront “share” was not reported as income by the license holders.
“Yesterday, I called for the state to ban these machines,” Cooke said. “Today’s forfeiture action and the associated criminal case are just another example of the negative impact these gambling machines have on our community and our state.”
“These machines are a cancer on our society, and it’s time that they’re removed from the Macon Judicial Circuit, and the rest of the state.”
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