Three arrested in video poker bust

Three arrested in video poker bust Investigators with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office arrested three people and seized 26 video poker machines in what they call one of the county’s biggest video poker busts. A court ordered deputies to return three video poker machines to employees of a company called Henderson Amusement. On Tuesday, when employees picked up the machines, deputies followed them to a warehouse at 134 Banks Road. The officers watched Henderson Amusement staff store the machines in the warehouse, which, the sheriff’s office said in a news release, is illegal. The attorneys who represent the company said that law does not apply in this case because the three machines, as well as all the others in the warehouse, needed to be repaired and could not operate. The officers got search warrants for the warehouse. Inside they found about 26 video gaming machines, cash and documents. They seized it all, netting about $160,000, according to reports. On Tuesday, officers arrested three employees of Henderson Amusement: Anna Deaton, 34, of Black Road in Ellenboro, Sam Greene, 53, of Inman, S.C., and William Brown, 37, of Laurens, S.C. Each was charged with a felony count of operation of five video gaming machines, misdemeanor charges of warehousing game machines and failure to register with the sheriff. Brown and Ms. Deaton were released on $2,500 bonds and Greene was released on a $1,000 bond. Sheriff’s Capt. David Rankin said investigators did not know what the company was planning to do with all of the machines. He declined to explain the charges. The 26 machines and money were taken into evidence at the sheriff’s office, he said. Attorney Rob Deaton, brother-in-law of Anna Deaton, and attorney Brian Gulden said that the court ordered the three video gaming machines returned to the company after a judge dismissed a case against Bill Kenneth Lovingood Jr., owner of Bill’s Country Store. Officers had said they had received several complaints about minors playing the machines at the store, which is near Burns High School. They sent a teen undercover into the store and said that on Dec. 1, 2004, Lovingood sold tobacco to the minor and allowed him to play the video gaming machines. The case was dismissed on April 11, and the company went Tuesday to pick up the three seized machines. Deaton said the three machines had been registered and still had the registration stickers on them. All of the machines in the warehouse were registered as well, he said. But, he added, none of the machines in the warehouse, which are now in the sheriff’s custody, was working. “I challenge them to put money in those machines they seized,” Deaton said. “They won’t work.” The sheriff’s office said it has been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Bureau of Investigation on the case and expects more charges will come in the investigation.