Marion County was riddled with storefront gambling dens — until it passed a local ordinance in 2021 that gave deputies more power to shut them down. Within months, the slot-machine parlors vanished.
Sumter County saw similar results after adopting its own rules that same year. The 13 gambling businesses once scattered across the rural county are now gone, local officials said.
Now Manatee County is preparing to follow their lead. Commissioners voted this week to move forward with a proposal modeled on those counties’ ordinances, hoping to replicate their success in wiping out illegal “arcades” that have long operated with little consequence.
Responding to a recent investigation from Suncoast Searchlight and the Bradenton Herald, Manatee County Commissioner Tal Siddique pitched the regulations this month as a way to go beyond the limitations of broad state statutes that have failed to get a handle on the spread.
The investigation from the two newsrooms found that lax state laws and weak penalties leave little risk for illegal game rooms, which routinely dodge enforcement — closing on one block only to reopen on another. Authorities say the lengthy legal process makes matters worse; it can take undercover work, a judge’s warrant and weeks of evidence storage just to bring a case that often ends in a civil fine or misdemeanor.
“This is the kind of stuff that wakes up a community and galvanizes them into action,” Siddique said of the investigation.
Manatee commissioners directed county staff to review Marion County’s local gaming ordinance in particular. That ordinance prohibits “simulated gambling devices and internet cafés” above and beyond the existing state law – and mirrors a similar path for Manatee. Local officials hope to have a final vote on the issue by the end of the year.
Some commissioners who voted against the efforts called it an example of over-regulation. But the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has publicly backed the proposal.
“Sheriff Rick Wells supports the idea of increased regulation on the operation of these businesses,” agency spokesperson Randy Warren said in a statement.
‘Like shooting fish in a barrel.’ How other counties stamped out shady casinos
Marion County’s ordinance defines a simulated gambling device as any machine that lets a person play a computer-simulated game offering, directly or indirectly, a payout from the owner or operator. It makes it unlawful for anyone to “manage, supervise, maintain, provide, produce, possess, or use” such a device and establishes a fine of $250 per violation, which is a civil violation on first offense.
It can escalate to a second-degree misdemeanor and fines of up to $500 for more serious offenses, like if the violator has five or more machines or any prior convictions.
“The advice that I got from my county attorney was to look at the most recent ordinance, because gambling laws are complex and have changed,” Siddique said. In Marion County, “it addressed their concerns with the issue and strengthened the laws with more teeth.”
Among the counties with localized measures, Siddique said Marion’s was the most clear and effective — focusing on the types of gaming devices rather than the types of businesses. He said that prevents these machines from also popping up in bars or corner stores.
Home to the city of Ocala, Marion County’s measure was first proposed by the sheriff's office.
Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Paul Bloom said his county used to have a major problem with the illegal establishments popping up in vacant storefronts.
Crime soon followed in these largely all-cash businesses.
“Convenience store robberies almost completely went away,” Bloom said. “These places were a lot easier to rob. They were a driver of crime … These things just attracted too many unsavory characters and issues and problems. It took a lot of our time and effort — and even our taxpayer money.”
Before the ordinance, Bloom said, the sheriff’s office ran out of room to store the big and bulky slot machines confiscated during investigations.
County officials and law enforcement were “just sick of it,” he said. The result was an ordinance in March 2020 with officials calling an emergency meeting at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, a more tailored version was approved in 2021 through a unanimous vote.
Bloom said the Marion ordinance has been a success, largely keeping strip-mall casinos from locating in the county.
“Anytime we would send an agent in there, it was like shooting fish in a barrel,” Bloom said. “But the problem was the cost for the state attorneys (who) were having to prosecute these folks, and the owners were fighting with very big law firms, spending a lot of money and dragging these things out.”
In Sumter County, officials drafted a similar ordinance in 2021 to eradicate the spread of illegal gambling at these arcades and so-called Internet cafes.
When the measure was first proposed, there were 13 of these gambling businesses in Sumter. All have since vanished, said County Administrator Bradley Arnold.
Known for The Villages retirement mecca, the otherwise rural north Florida county first took aim at where these businesses can open, regulating them to industrial or regional-commercial zones only and ensuring they can’t operate near homes, schools and churches.
Existing game rooms then needed to obtain local permits, which authorized the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office to conduct regular inspections without a warrant.
“We had some complaints related to various activities, even in the parking lot, and just general concerns,” Arnold told Suncoast Searchlight. “We ended up whittling down the numbers. Some got closed down. In other instances, landlords chose not to renew leases, so that shut them down.”
Facing the explosion of illegal gaming businesses, Seminole County also took action through a moratorium on video slots, then with a more permanent approach in 2021 with an ordinance targeting gambling machines for commercial use.
Illegal slots drive complaints in Sarasota, Manatee
While state officials say Florida laws are effective, they told Suncoast Searchlight they do not oppose localities from taking even stronger steps to crack down on the operations inside their jurisdictions.
During the past 12 months alone, the Florida Gaming Control Commission received 39 reports of illegal gambling in Manatee County and 75 in Sarasota County, according to the agency. The vast majority involved “arcades.”
Jennifer Kruse, the executive director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, said illegal slots were also one of the biggest problems for gamblers in the Sunshine State who called the organization’s helpline 888-ADMIT-IT.
She said people who frequent strip-mall casinos are often older, on limited incomes and unlikely to travel to major casinos like the Seminole Hard Rock.
“It’s a much more vulnerable population,” she said.
L. Carl Herold, a director with the state’s Gaming Control Commission, said Florida law already prohibits slot machines in all but specific locations, but local efforts that focus on curbing illegal operations can be helpful in preventing operators from jumping from one location to the next.
“Where a county ordinance can help is in abating the businesses that try to hide a casino in a storefront,” Herold wrote in an email to Suncoast Searchlight.
“Effective ordinances do three things without creating any path to operate illegal devices,” he wrote. “First, they use zoning and land use to keep these operations from clustering. Second, they require business disclosures and permit inspections to confirm that no illegal devices are present. Third, they treat repeat violators as a public nuisance for swift closure.”
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
