Gambling news from http://www.journalnow.com/
You can buy fishing supplies at C&J Bait and Tackle on South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
But Winston-Salem police say that the business also offered some other products to lure in customers who weren't all that interested in fishing.
Earlier this month, they searched the store, a nearby building at 1137 Tower St. and the home of the store's owner, Jimmy Carlton Baker, 52, as part of an investigation into gambling.
Baker, of 341 Friendly Acres Drive, was charged with gambling and dealing in lotteries, both misdemeanors, on June 2 after the searches.
Baker did not respond to a message left at the store Thursday or to two messages left on an answering machine at his phone number as listed in court records.
Investigators seized money, gambling tickets, a car and marijuana from the building on Tower Street. They seized money, guns, gambling paraphernalia and a car from Baker's home, and money and gambling tickets from the bait-and-tackle shop.
Police were not able to provide further details on the items seized yesterday, such as the amount of money or a description of the tickets.
An employee at the bait shop said Thursday that the store simply had video-poker machines in a back room. The machines had stickers marking them as registered with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
Video-poker machines are being phased out by July 2007 as part of a law passed earlier this month by the General Assembly.
Critics of the machines say that they often lead to illegal gambling.
The investigation of Baker came after a vice-and-narcotics detective got a tip that Baker was running gambling establishments at the bait shop and a nearby building, which also doubles as a boxing gym.
According to the warrant, the tipster said that employees took bets on sports games, writing receipts for each bet.
The detective started watching the bait shop and the building on Tower Street.
At the bait shop, he noticed that customers came and went, but "at no time did any these subjects leave the business with any type of noticeable fishing tackle," according to the application to search the store.
At the building on Tower Street, traffic would pick up between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. every day, according to the detective. People would park in a gravel lot, then walk in the building and stay for 5 to 10 minutes.
The detective saw Baker go back and forth from the building to the bait store.
Twice, the detective had an informant go to the building on Tower Street to try to place bets on NBA games. The informant was searched, given $100, then watched while entering the building and coming out with a handwritten receipt with details of a bet.
To make sure that Baker lived at the home on Friendly Acres Drive, which is in his daughter's name in property records, the detective called Baker's daughter and posed as a time-share salesman.
After Baker's daughter gave a different home address than that of Baker, the detective asked her if she had any family members who would want to register for a free vacation offer.
The daughter gave her father's name and address.
Baker has been investigated for gambling several times in recent years, according to court records and the search-warrant application.
He has been found guilty six times since 1999 in Forsyth County of gambling-related charges, such as selling lottery tickets, selling "numbers" tickets and operating or possessing gambling devices. All are misdemeanors.
Mark Senter, a district supervisor with N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, one of several agencies that enforce gambling laws, said that there is no felony charge for gambling.
A judge can order people not to operate video-poker machines while they are on probation. Court records show at least two such orders for Baker.
Otherwise, there are few ways to prevent someone with a gambling conviction from owning a business with a video-poker machine in it, Senter said.
Police can try to close a business if they can prove that it is a nuisance under state law, but that requires undergoing a complicated legal process.
Baker's most recent conviction was on June 9, 2005, for gambling and possessing lottery tickets.
According to court records, three weeks later, a judge approved Baker's request to have the video-poker machines seized during his arrest returned. |
|
