Two men from Arkansas are accused of running an illegal gambling business in West Palm Beach.
Dilpreet Singh, 38, and Albaro Lemus, 30, face a number of charges related to gambling. Lemus faces an additional charge of conspiracy. And Singh faces a charge of fraud-money laundering under $20,000.
According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the illegal gambling happened at All Kings Arcade, which did business as Hot Rodz Arcade on Okeechobee Boulevard, just east of N. Congress Avenue.
Florida “prohibits skill-based slots that pay out cash or other things of value,” investigators wrote in their report.
But after several undercover walk-throughs and transactions in July and August, investigators determined the adult arcade is engaged in “Las Vegas style video slot machines for cash prizes and are currently to date operating as illegal gambling houses.” Investigators said they found over 30 Vegas-style slot machines in the establishment.
In one test, the undercover agent won $4.15. In another, the undercover agent lost $7.95. And in another test, the undercover agent received $111 in cash winnings.
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Singh and Lemus are from Arkansas but had an address in West Palm Beach. According to the arrest report, they’d trade off working as the manager of the arcade while the other went home to visit family in Arkansas.
Investigators said the arcade did not have a business license in Palm Beach County. A county code enforcement team performed a site inspection at the establishment and found several violations. When asked if the business is legal, a worker told Palm Beach County Code Enforcement the business is legal due to the “Chuck-E-Cheese Law,” and that people get paid in cash.
Investigators found no evidence the company made payments to the IRS as required to pay the Federal Withholding Tax, Social Security Tax and Medicare Tax for employees. They also couldn’t find any records that showed the company had a payroll or made payments to the Florida Department of Labor.
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According to the arrest reports, investigators found banking records associated with All Kings Arcade but not Hot Rodz Arcade. The records showed Lemus made more than $10,000 worth of cash deposits. In June, Lemus filed a report of a robbery. He told investigators a frequent customer robbed the money bag while he and another employee were removing earnings from the arcade machines.
Investigators believe the people who worked at the business knew of the illegal gambling, used cash to “disguise the audit trail of the illicit money,” and used the bank transactions for “the laundering of proceeds derived from illicit activity such as illegal gambling.”
Both men are free on bond following their arrests on Wednesday.