Police find illegal slots in CdA bars

Idaho State Police raided 13 bars across the state on Wednesday morning – including three in Coeur d’Alene – to seize illegal electronic gambling machines. Fifty of the electronic slot machines were seized, including 15 from the three Coeur d’Alene taverns.

The local taverns raided include the 1210 Tavern, 1210 E. Sherman Ave., and the Time Out Tavern, 5785 N. Government Way. Owners or staffers reached by telephone declined to comment Wednesday evening.

The investigation into Wednesday’s crackdown has been in the works for about a year, Rick Ohnsman, ISP information officer, said, and grew out of complaints from family members of compulsive gamblers.

“We had stories where people were coming to us and saying, ‘My husband is pouring our life savings into the machine.’ People who can scarce afford it,” Ohnsman said. “We heard some sad stories.”

The type of gaming machine seized Wednesday is as prevalent as the big jars of pickled eggs in North Idaho bars and taverns and fraternal organizations.

“I know it’s illegal, but they’re common,” said Chris McFarland, who, with his wife Linda, owns Chillers, 1920 E. Sherman Ave. in Coeur d’Alene. “A bunch of taverns have them. Eagles. Elks. All those. I often wonder why, as conservative as Idaho is, they let this go on.”

McFarland was among several bar and tavern owners contacted by The Spokesman-Review Wednesday evening. Many declined to comment until, as one said, “the dust clears.”

Ohnsman and ISP Lt. Bob Clements, head of the Alcohol Beverage Control bureau, said it is clear there are “alarming numbers” of the gaming machines in play throughout the state. Further raids may be in the offing, they said, and Wednesday’s investigation will seek to uncover any evidence of racketeering.

Any gaming machine not sanctioned by the state Lottery Commission is illegal, it appears from reading an ISP press release. Ohnsman said Lottery Commission Director Roger Simmons attended a post-raid press conference in Meridian and said, “Where profits from this illegal gambling goes only into the pockets of those running the operations, Lottery dollars support Idaho schools.”

Right now, Ohnsman said, the 13 bars raided are facing misdemeanor charges for possessing the illegal gaming machines. Patrons would play the machines with cash, Clements said, and would accrue credits for any jackpots. Bar staffers would pay out the jackpot winnings, but the house kept everything else.

The amount of money a machine makes doesn’t factor into whether the crime becomes a felony or not, Ohnsman said.

Clements said records seized in the raids show the machines – which are said to cost $2,000 to $5,000 each – might make $2,000 each a week. This makes “a very lucrative business,” Clements said. “Suffice to say the take from these establishments was considerable and of course all of it was tax-free income for the operators of the machines.”

More serious than misdemeanor possession of gaming machines is the prospect of losing a liquor license because of the violation, Ohnsman said.

McFarland agreed. “The criminal end of it is not such a big deal,” he said. But if a bar is shut down, “a Coeur d’Alene liquor license is worth $100,000 to $150,000 – that’s a big gamble.”

McFarland does not have the machines in Chillers, he said. “I want to stay legal. I don’t want to lose my license.”

But he said traffic in gaming machines is wide open: They come from a regional distributor “and they have tax stamps,” he said. The state tax commission issues the stamps much as it does for pinball machines or video games, McFarland said, knowing only that the device is intended for entertainment in a tavern.

It’s up to ISP, he said, to determine if the devices are legal. And Ohnsman said the ISP’s Alcohol Beverage Control bureau only has one investigator for the state.

“We are not doubting there are other locations than the ones we found,” Ohnsman said. “But right now we want to take a look and check the records we recovered.”

If the investigation uncovers any sort of a network, people involved would face felony racketeering charges, Ohnsman said.

There were no arrests in Wednesday’s raids, Ohnsman said. None of the 13 establishments was shut down.

Police in raid jackets carted the seized machines away in U-Haul trucks.

“It sure livened things up,” McFarland said.