At the time, Kompothecras, who owns the building where it operated, told the media organizations he was only the landlord and denied any knowledge of gambling inside.<\/p>\n
Reporters did not yet know he had been named a suspect in the sheriff\u2019s office case. By his account, neither did he.<\/p>\n
Reached by phone this week, Kompothecras said it was the first time that he was hearing about the criminal investigation against him. He said neither the sheriff\u2019s office nor prosecutors had ever contacted him about the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d he said after learning of the criminal investigation from a reporter. \u201cMaybe they were trying to get evidence and found out it wasn\u2019t true. There are legal machines and illegal machines. The people that rented it said they were legal, and I said fine. I believed them. They paid the rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CPXPSVAAJREHTNWBESOK3NK6HE.jpg\")
Gary Kompothecras, the Sarasota businessman behind 1-800-ASK-GARY, was named a suspect in a Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s investigation into alleged illegal gambling at Spin Fun Arcade in Bradenton. He was never charged, and the case was dropped.(Grant Jefferies | Tiffany Tompkins\/Bradenton Herald)<\/p>\n
Kompothecras said that his tenants voluntarily closed the arcade this summer after the media coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s bigger crimes out there than people playing slot machines for pennies,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut now that you shut them down, there\u2019s people without jobs, and I\u2019m not getting rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hampered by limited resources and weak criminal payouts after exhaustive investigations, state and local authorities for years have struggled to police these operations, which they say have become breeding grounds for drugs and violent crime. Law enforcement has responded numerous times to the address for Spin Fun, mostly for calls referencing drug-related incidents, including apparent patron overdoses, sheriff records show.<\/p>\n
Punishments in Florida for operating or owning slot machines outside of a licensed facility can range from 60 days in jail to five years in prison, along with fines of $10,000 per machine. But in most cases, those behind these busted game rooms get off with a misdemeanor or a fine, especially if it\u2019s a first offense.<\/p>\n
The media organizations\u2019 reporting prompted Manatee County commissioners to pursue a new ordinance requiring arcade operators to register for permits. It would allow officials \u201cto differentiate the Dave and Busters of the world from Spin Fun Arcade,\u201d according to Manatee County Commissioner Tal Siddique, who proposed the plan.<\/p>\n
Commissioners directed staff this month to draft an ordinance modeled after one in Marion County<\/a> that has stamped out the illegal operations.<\/p>\n Not everyone supports it, though. Among them is Commissioner George Kruse, who said during the board\u2019s meeting that the state already has laws banning these operations and the county doesn\u2019t need to add to them with its own regulations.<\/p>\n But the Spin Fun case helps explain why such reforms are on the table \u2014 despite raids, evidence and seized cash, Florida\u2019s gambling laws leave many of these businesses operating in the gray area between what looks illegal and what can actually be proven.<\/p>\n Inside the undercover raid at Bradenton\u2019s Spin Fun Arcade<\/p>\n According to investigative reports obtained by Suncoast Searchlight and Bradenton Herald, the Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s Office began its probe of Spin Fun Arcade in May 2023 as part of a broader effort to crack down on illegal gambling operations.<\/p>\n That month, deputies sent a cease-and-desist order, and the Florida Gaming Control Commission followed up weeks later with its own certified warning letter to the business \u2014 both based on complaints over illegal gambling activity. But neither notice apparently stopped the operation.<\/p>\n By late September, an undercover Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s deputy decided to test the allegations himself. Using $80 from the sheriff\u2019s office investigative fund, he went to the arcade, which sits in a small retail plaza on 14th Street West in Bradenton that also boasts a Starbucks and The Joint Chiropractic.<\/p>\n As detailed in the investigative report, the deputy approached a row of machines flashing casino graphics and took a seat at one called Ultimate Fire Link. He inserted a $20 bill, played several rounds and eventually cashed out at the counter, receiving $32 in cash for his printed ticket. The entire exchange was captured on a hidden camera.<\/p>\n Under Florida law, games of chance that offer cash payouts \u2014 regardless of skill \u2014 are prohibited outside of licensed casinos. <\/p>\n The rise of Florida\u2019s adult arcades traces back more than a decade, when gambling dens began cropping up statewide under the guise of \u201cinternet caf\u00e9s\u201d and \u201csweepstakes\u201d parlors. They offered casino-style games of chance they claimed were no different from McDonald\u2019s Monopoly promotions \u2014 charging not per pull of a slot machine, but for the \u201cinternet time\u201d used to play.<\/p>\n In response, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed a sweeping law in 2013 that closed the loophole, banning most electronic gambling devices while exempting legitimate promotions and the Florida Lottery. Yet despite the crackdown, the storefront casinos never entirely disappeared. Many rebranded as \u201cadult arcades,\u201d continuing to exploit gray areas in the law and leaving local law enforcement to sort out what\u2019s legal and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n The undercover operation of Spin Fun in September 2023 provided deputies with the proof they needed to obtain a search warrant. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was clear that Spin Fun was attracting customers by awarding something of value based on an unpredictable assignment of entries\/credits using casino-style games,\u201d the deputy wrote in his investigative files. \u201cSpin Fun was not operating as an \u2018adult arcade\u2019 with skill-based \u2018amusement games or machines\u2019 and payouts in merchandise only, as required … This gaming scheme and the network of machines\/devices was being used at Spin Fun as an illegal lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n On Oct. 9, deputies executed that warrant. The raid, documented in a detailed evidence log and capias request later submitted to prosecutors, described the scene as something of a miniature casino. Investigators seized 95 slot machines, including several bearing the Bally logo, and recovered more than $40,000 in cash from the register, slot machines, ATM and back-office safes. They also removed computers, flash drives and 10 wall-mounted televisions. <\/p>\n The report noted that a Spin Fun employee told investigators her boss was a man named \u201cSam,\u201d described as being Hispanic and in his 30s or 40s with curly hair, but she did not provide a last name. Nobody matching that name or description was charged for crimes related to Spin Fun either.<\/p>\n Also during the search, a woman named Stephanie Henson arrived and told deputies that she and her husband owned the cellular equipment that powered the arcade\u2019s ATM \u2014 and that Kompothecras was the owner of both the machine and the business itself, according to the agency\u2019s report summarizing her statement.<\/p>\n \u201cGary Kompothecras owns, stores, keeps, possesses, and permits the operation of devices that are legally defined as slot machines,\u201d the Manatee Sheriff\u2019s Office wrote in the capias request, a formal document outlining evidence and sent to prosecutors to determine whether to pursue charges.<\/p>\n \u201cIn conclusion,\u201d the document stated, \u201cMCSO has determined that Gary Kompothecras has had a substantial degree of control over and kept or maintained Spin Fun Arcade, and that Spin Fun Arcade was habitually kept or maintained for the purpose of gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n Why prosecutors dropped the case despite seized slot machines and cash<\/p>\n The Manatee Sheriff\u2019s Office forwarded the case file to the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney\u2019s Office for potential prosecution.<\/p>\n But State Attorney Ed Brodsky, who had previously received at least one campaign donation from a company owned by Kompothecras, recused himself from the investigation, citing a conflict of interest. Gov. Ron DeSantis reassigned the case to the 20th Judicial Circuit, based in Fort Myers.<\/p>\n There, prosecutors reviewed the evidence and declined to file charges, citing insufficient proof that Kompothecras participated in \u2014 or even knew whether \u2014 illegal gambling was taking place inside his building.<\/p>\n In a one-page prosecutor\u2019s summary obtained by Suncoast Searchlight, Assistant State Attorney J.D. Miller, who is chief of the Economic Crimes Unit, wrote that while deputies seized slot machines and documented cash payouts, \u201cthere is no evidence to suggest that [Kompothecras] was aware of the gambling.\u201d The only direct link, Miller wrote, was \u201cone person\u2019s claim that he owns the ATM machine.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing in the state attorney\u2019s file indicates that prosecutors interviewed Henson.<\/p>\n The decision not to file charges effectively closed the case. Spin Fun reopened in the same location and continued operating into the summer of 2025, after which it closed following the media organizations\u2019 call to Kompothecras.<\/p>\n Manatee Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesperson Randy Warren told reporters this week that the slot machines seized in the 2023 raid were destroyed. <\/p>\n Warren said deputies continue to monitor arcades throughout Manatee County, conducting spot checks and issuing written warnings that explain the law. He said investigators can show up at any time and shut a business down if illegal gambling is observed.<\/p>\n \u201cThese operators know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Warren said. \u201cThey make good money while they can, and when we show up, they lose their machines and the cash that\u2019s inside. But it\u2019s part of their cost of doing business.\u201d<\/p>\n He said enforcement will continue for as long as the arcades keep operating in violation of state law. \u201cIf it looks like Las Vegas and pays out like Las Vegas, it\u2019s illegal here.\u201d<\/p>\n Who is Gary Kompothecras? The 1-800-ASK-GARY founder at the center of the case<\/p>\n Property and business records reviewed by Suncoast Searchlight show that the commercial building at 5234 14th Street West \u2014 home to Spin Fun Arcade \u2014 is owned by 5234 14th Street LLC, a company solely managed by Kompothecras. <\/p>\n The Florida Division of Corporations lists the company\u2019s registered address as 4054 Sawyer Road in Sarasota, the same address used for several of Kompothecras\u2019s other business ventures.<\/p>\n Kompothecras, 65, is widely known across Florida as the founder of the 1-800-ASK-GARY lawyer referral service, a brand made famous by its rapid-fire radio jingles and rap-style ads that started saturating airwaves in the late 1990s and early 2000s. <\/p>\n A chiropractor by training, he built the service into a lucrative enterprise that once held the naming rights to the amphitheater in Tampa, now known as the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre.<\/p>\n Beyond business, Kompothecras has long been a prominent figure in state Republican politics. He has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee, the Florida Republican Party and Friends of Ron DeSantis, among other committees. <\/p>\n He has also been a bar owner, movie producer and real estate developer, at times courting controversy \u2014 including over a proposed Siesta Key hotel project that drew heavy opposition. In 2022, he hosted a fundraiser for Gov. DeSantis at his waterfront Siesta Key estate that featured a live elephant, according to the Business Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Kompothecras has maintained that he is merely the landlord, legal experts say property owners can still be held responsible if they knowingly allow illegal gambling operations on their premises. <\/p>\n Florida\u2019s gambling statute, Chapter 849, states that any person who \u201cprovides or operates a house, booth, tent, shelter or other place for the purpose of gaming or gambling\u201d can be prosecuted \u2014 language broad enough to include landlords.<\/p>\n Kevin Jursinski, a Florida attorney with decades of experience in gaming law, including representing casino operators before the sweepstakes loophole was closed, said the state\u2019s gambling statute is broad enough that landlords could be liable if they knowingly profit from illegal gambling.<\/p>\n Jursinski spoke generally about Florida law and was not told Kompothecras\u2019 name or any details of the Spin Fun case.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, the owner [of the building] has control over the store,\u201d Jursinski said. \u201cHe knows what\u2019s going on in there, and the lease will usually say what you can and can\u2019t do. If the windows are wrapped with 777 or that kind of thing, it\u2019s hard to say you didn\u2019t know what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman said earlier this year that his agency has also targeted similar adult arcades and routinely notifies both operators and property owners when sending cease-and-desist letters. Hoffman did not comment on the Spin Fun case specifically.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know it\u2019s illegal \u2014 they just try to make as much money as they can, then get out of dodge,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be playing whack-a-mole for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n