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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Two illegal arcades in St. Petersburg<\/a> have been shut down.<\/p>\n St. Peterburg police, along with the Florida Gaming Control Commission, busted the illegal arcades on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n Law enforcement officials say agents seized 30 slot machines, five fish tables (gambling video game tables) and $15,654 in cash.<\/p>\n Ghazwan Samaan and Anthony Jamel Abuead were arrested and charged with one count of possession of slot machines and one count of keeping a gambling house.<\/p>\n At the 49th Street Arcade, agents said they seized 29 illegal slot machines and one fish table, along with $4,266 in cash.<\/p>\n READ: St. Pete mayor, neighbors weigh in on $51M community hub<\/a><\/p>\n They arrested Angela D. Sutton and charged her with one count of possession of slot machines and one count of keeping a gambling house.<\/p>\n Local perspective:<\/p>\n “I\u00a0think by shutting down these illegal game rooms, we’ve really put an end to a lot of the nuisances and a lot of the crime,” said St. Pete Rep Corey Givens Jr. \u00a0<\/p>\n Givens said illegal gambling locations in south St. Pete were an open secret.<\/p>\n “You go into a corner store to buy a cup of coffee. And in that corner store, you see your neighbor sitting on a slot machine gambling. That’s not typical for your local convenience store gas station,” said Givens.<\/p>\n But, Givens said, they were also attracting crime.<\/p>\n “These game rooms attracted more than just gamblers. It was a hub for noise complaints. There was a lot of time, other illegal activities,” said Givens.<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n SPPD call logs show officers were called to each location more than a dozen times just this year. On average, at least once a month, SPPD was responding to each location.<\/p>\n Police say they got complaints from both locations about trash and noise.<\/p>\n At\u00a049th\u00a0Street South, police responded to noise complaints and complaints about partying. At the 16th\u00a0Street South location, police responded to calls for trespassing and burglary.<\/p>\n “If residents have been unhappy with both facilities, the closing of them means a lot of relief for them,” said Ken Knight, a spokesperson for SPPD.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “These coordinated operations demonstrate the FGCC’s continued commitment to eliminating illegal gambling enterprises that undermine our regulated gaming industry and negatively impact Florida communities,” said L. Carl Herold, Director of Gaming Enforcement. “Casinos and slot machines are only authorized in specific licensed facilities in Florida. Any other operation is unlawful, and we will pursue it vigorously.”<\/p>\n “Thanks to the continued support of our state partners, we remain steadfast in our commitment to removing illegal gaming machines from our community,” Chief of St. Petersburg Police Anthony Holloway said. “We will not allow these unlawful operations to undermine the safety and well-being of our residents.”<\/p>\n Why you should care:<\/p>\n Florida law strictly regulates gambling, with slot machines permitted only in licensed gaming.<\/p>\n Unlike sanctioned gambling, there are no consumer protections at illegal gambling houses or arcades. In unregulated betting, odds are often overly stacked against the customer<\/p>\n “They lose money at facilities that are not licensed. We can’t regulate them,” said Knight.<\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to report suspected gambling activities to the Florida Gaming Control Commission.<\/p>\n The Source: This story was written with information provided by the St. Petersburg Police Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n St. Petersburg<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Two illegal arcades in St. Petersburg have been shut down. St. Peterburg police, along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-4186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","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=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/snapshot-4.jpg\")
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