JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 More than 100 illegal gambling machines have been seized from businesses across Jacksonville. Police said the machines were found in bars, gas stations, and restaurants during a three-day crackdown called Operation Reel of Fortune led by the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Police say this location was one of 16 places across Jacksonville where illegal gambling machines were confiscated.<\/p>\n Investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office spent three days going business to business looking for illegal gambling machines.<\/p>\n Police say more than 100 machines were confiscated from 16 locations across the city, including bars, restaurants, gas stations and even a nail salon.<\/p>\n According to Florida law, it is illegal to manufacture, own, possess, or operate slot machines in most parts of the state.<\/p>\n The only places where slot machines are allowed are licensed facilities in certain counties like casinos.<\/p>\n Investigators said that means machines like the ones taken from businesses across Jacksonville are illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cOn here, it says restroom is out of order. Then I look over here, that\u2019s not a restroom right here where the games are,\u201d JSO officer.<\/p>\n Authorities said the reason for the crackdown is simple.<\/p>\n They say these machines and the people running them often target those who are financially vulnerable.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m shocked that there\u2019s gambling going on in my neighborhood pub,\u201d said a local man.<\/p>\n Others said if people want to gamble, there are legal places to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like there\u2019s plenty of other places where you can gamble at than a bar,\u201d said Jeremy King.<\/p>\n During the operation, investigators say machines were seized from locations including Captain Odies on Mayport Road, Monkey\u2019s Uncle on San Jose Boulevard, and several other businesses across Jacksonville.<\/p>\n Police said several people were arrested and now face felony charges connected to the illegal gambling operations.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 More than 100 illegal gambling machines have been seized from businesses across Jacksonville. Police said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85889,7840,85891,28,116,118,117,6458,634,85890,17180,14345,9475,13134,85888,44778,84716,40855,24471,7842,32755,51459],"class_list":["post-181963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_and","tag-ben_becker","tag-captain_aldi","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","tag-local","tag-lucky_food_mart","tag-mayport_road","tag-monkeys","tag-nicholas_brooks","tag-nick","tag-operation_wheel_of_fortune","tag-saint_johns_bluff","tag-san_jose_boulevard","tag-shacks","tag-tanika","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-uncle","tag-yona_gvino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}