Fourth local gambling ring busted

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Raided Thursday, closed Friday. No one will cash in at The Internet Sweepstakes Center on Old Oyster Point Road anytime soon.

Former customer Curtis Martin of Newport News told WAVY.com, "I came down here and there was a whole lot of cops. I looked and they closed it down."

Martin watched as Newport News police went into the business Thursday night. Police spokesman Lou Thurston said officers took 20 computers and a machine, they believe supplied cards similar to debit cards for gambling.

Martin was surprised, "I thought it was like good. I didn't think it was illegal," he said.

Newport News police have not made any arrests, yet.

However, WAVY.com learned the State Corporation Commission and the City of Newport News lists a man from Greensboro, North Carolina as the business' owner. The owner is not named in search warrants from Newport News Circuit Court. The documents explain the undercover operation that led to Thursday's search. Officers reported buying "get connected prepaid products." The documents give accounts of undercover officers swiping the cards on a computer, and playing games. On different occasions, those officers reported being able to "cash out" the value on the card.

After those incidents, officers took "any device, machine or paraphernalia" suspected of being "used in an illegal gambling operation."

LaShawn Freeman told WAVY.com she played the computer games when she went in to cash a check.

Freeman said "When you go in, you would think it's a totally legal establishment. Especially if you went there prior with checks."

WAVY.com discovered the owner of Cash Express renewed a business license with Newport News in January. In April, according to the State Corporation Commission, the owner surrendered his payday lending license.

Freeman said she could not cash a check the last time she tried. After playing the game once, she decided not to do it again.

"I never went back because I had seen on the news a couple of other places had got raided for the same exact thing," she said.

Police are not saying the raids she saw in Hampton, which WAVY News 10 reported last month, are directly connected to the Newport News case. However, Newport News detectives took a tip from Hampton detectives.

According to Thurston, the departments work closely with one another, and "Hampton was doing an investigation on illegal gambling in their city. They received information, and it led to this investigation."

The investigation is still not complete. Newport News police also made a stop in Portsmouth on Thursday. Court documents in that city show Newport News investigators searched a regional headquarters office for Cash Express located on Tyre Neck Road in Portsmouth.