Search warrants describe two internet gaming centers which were raided last week as being run like casinos.

Nearly $20,000 in currency was seized in the two raids, according to the search warrants executed.

The approximate total, the documents show, is $19,774.

Of that amount, approximately $13,956 was seized from RR Business Center in Oakland Shopping Center. There was $3,618 seized from the cash register of Diamond City in Hollister and another $2,200 from the business’s ATM.

In addition to the money, numerous pieces of computer equipment and several games were taken from both businesses.

An RR Business Center employee was arrested and indictments are expected to be lodged in the Hollister case. A source close to the investigations confirmed the Hollister case would be handled through indictments.

Russell King, North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement ASAC, wrote both search warrants and based them on 10 state laws which address gambling. Superior court Judge Alma L. Hinton signed off on the warrants, which were both issued on January 21.

Complaints

ALE and the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office received complaints in October that RR Business Center was operating and keeping illegal gaming machines and gambling devices at its location off Julian R. Allsbrook Highway.

An undercover ALE agent, “ … Found Diamond City was operating as a casino … it was a building open to the public where gambling games were being operated and played.”

There was an ATM onsite, complimentary beverages and food were being provided to the players and no clock was displayed in the building, the Diamond City search warrant said. There were interior and exterior cameras, “which are all characteristics of a casino. Diamond City is not located on Indian lands which are held in trust by the United States government or has entered into a compact with the state of North Carolina.”

In November, cease and desist orders were served to RR Business Center and Diamond City, which is located on Highway 561. The letter advised both businesses “they had been identified as possibly operating illegal video gaming machines. The letter further read if the gaming machines being operated by the (locations) were illegal, they had three days to cease operating said video gaming machines.”

Undercover operations and payouts

The search warrants said both locations were being operated on a pay to play format and were predominantly slot style games where players bet credits equal to currency on games based on the random matching of numbers and symbols determined by the game program.

None of the games at either location had anything to do with skill or dexterity as is commonly promoted, the search warrants said.

ALE agents acting in undercover capacities played games at both locations.

At Diamond City, an agent observed approximately 20 cabinet-style video games in operation. The agent also observed 40 server-based video gaming machines. The agent “found these types of gaming machines to be based upon, or involving, the random or chance matching of different pictures, words, numbers or symbols not dependent upon skill or dexterity of the player … There is no skill or dexterity involved to play a slot game because the symbols are matched randomly or by chance.”

At Diamond City the agent learned through a series of winning and losing games they had won a total of $20 in credits. “According to North Carolina General statutes, no cash payouts of any kind, cash equivalent or prizes exceeding ten dollars in merchandise or prizes exchanged or converted to money can be awarded from credits obtained on a video gaming machine by a person operating or managing the gaming machine or the premises … It is a criminal offense punishable for a person to make unlawful payouts to the player of the machines …”

There were also five or more “illegal slot machines operating at Diamond City, which is in violation of North Carolina General Statute … and prohibits any person to operate five or more machines.”

Another agent accrued $45 in credits and chose to end their game and received currency in that amount while another accrued credits of $84 and received a payout in that amount.

RR Business Center was also described as a casino by one of the undercover agents.

One of the agents won $50.20 and cashed out.

Another agent chose to play Keno and ended up winning $148 when they opted to cash out and yet another agent won and was paid $119.

Like Diamond City, there were five or more illegal slot machines operating at RR Business Center which is against North Carolina law.

Items seized

Agents seized the following from RR Business Center:

An employee schedule; approximately $13,956 in currency; a TV recorder; office computer processing unit; 18 large wall monitors; 45 video gaming machine towers; two standup video gaming machines; a keyring with keys; a UPS mailing envelope.

From Diamond City the following items were seized:

72 CPU towers; 17 motherboards; a Sanyo TV; seven routers; a keyboard and mouse; an Insignia TV with remote; two boxes of non-CPU gaming chips; a counterfeit money scanner; two money counters; a video recorder; an HP printer; a Dell Poweredge CPU; a digital video recorder; $3,618 from the cash register; $2,200 from the ATM; two fish game boxes