Huntsville Police Department has arrested a man under suspicion of being involved in an alleged illegal gambling operation in Alabama.
A SWAT team from Huntsville Police Department executed a search warrant early on Tuesday, January 6 as part of an investigation into an alleged illegal gambling operation in the 3600 block of 7th Avenue. This led to the arrest of 59-year-old Robert Lorenzo Gray Jr.
Investigators also seized 21 hard drives from gambling machines, two firearms, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia. Gray went on to be charged with promoting gambling, possession of gambling records in the first degree, possession of marijuana in the second degree, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
“The investigation is ongoing, and additional arrests may be made,” said Huntsville Police Department in a statement.
Illegal gambling in Alabama
This isn’t the first similar investigation to take place in Alabama, with search warrants also executed in the last few months in Pike County and Fort Payne, with illegal gambling machines and records seized in both operations.
There’s also mounting pressure to tackle illegal online gambling, with concern rising about how such operators could be affecting Alabama youth.
An official letter from the Senate to to Attorney General Pam Bondi noted how illicit offshore gambling operations “allow minors to engage in unregulated sports betting and gaming with no oversight, unlike legal domestic gaming operations”. In addition, the bipartisan letter explained how “these illegal offshore gaming operations expose young people to numerous harms, including by permitting them to gamble without age verification, on credit, and offering no resources for gambling addictions.”
With Alabama one of the few states to almost entirely ban gambling, apart from a few exceptions limited to betting on horse and dog racing and electronic bingo machines, this push to crack down on illegal gambling is split across both physical and online spaces.
Featured image: Huntsville Police Department
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