Vallejo police and California Department of Justice investigators raided an alleged illegal gambling establishment in the 2400 block of Sonoma Boulevard before dawn, detaining eight people and seizing three illegal multiplayer gambling machines after a months-long investigation, police said.
The operation, first reported by SFGATE, began when Vallejo police detectives started monitoring the Sonoma Boulevard location in July and later reported the suspected establishment to the California Department of Justice, according to the department. Investigators say the location was operating as what's known as a bi-zone, a type of unlicensed gambling storefront.
Vallejo officers and state DOJ officials executed the search warrant at the Sonoma Boulevard address on October 21 at about 7 a.m., according to the report. Of the eight people detained during the operation, three were found to have outstanding warrants, officers said.
What Investigators Found Inside
Authorities seized three illegal multiplayer gambling machines from the location, according to the report. The supplied details of the operation do not identify the eight people who were detained, nor do they specify whether anyone has been arrested, cited or formally charged in connection with the raid.
It's also not yet clear what will happen to the three seized machines now that the search warrant has been executed, or who owned or operated the business. California Department of Justice guidance generally treats most coin-operated or payment-based gambling devices — outside of licensed tribal casinos — as illegal, a category the agency's advisories say includes machines like coin pushers, electronic trivia games with an element of chance, claw machines and traditional slot machines, according to the California Office of the Attorney General.
A Familiar Pattern for Vallejo
This isn't the first time an alleged illegal gambling operation has been shut down in the city. Back in July 2016, California Department of Justice investigators closed LM Connexions, an alleged illegal sweepstakes gambling establishment in Vallejo, seizing 19 gambling computers in that operation, according to Patch. That same sweep also shut down a similar operation in Fairfield, where both locations were disguised as internet cafes.
In that 2016 case, Fairfield police said the Fairfield location, Talk N Win, used sweepstakes gambling software that constituted illegal gambling under state law, and noted the business had previously been shut down once before, in August 2015, per the Patch report.
California's gambling statutes give regulators a wide net to work with. The state's Gambling Control Commission identifies Penal Code section 330.1 as the provision covering the manufacture, ownership, possession, sale and transportation of slot machines or similar devices, according to the California Gambling Control Commission. Separately, Penal Code section 330 addresses people who deal, play, open or conduct certain banked or percentage games, including faro, roulette, monte and twenty-one, according to California Legislative Information.
No further details have been released about charges, case numbers or the current status of the three people found with outstanding warrants. The business's name, ownership and leaseholder also remain unconfirmed in the information released so far.
