Two Arrested for Running Gambling Trailer

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

Police in Girard, Ohio this week announced that they arrested two men that are accused of running a gambling operation out of a small trailer.

The two defendants in the case are James Locke of Warren and Samuel Staffen of Georgia. They allegedly parked their gambling trailer on the outside of a gas station where they ran rigged games. The men said that their game gave players the chance to win big prizes like Xboxes and PS4s, but those prizes were unwinnable. The game was a board with different levels with clothespins, which had numbers. The pins had numbers that went toward a score, which supposedly built up to allow for the winning of prizes. The duo stand accused of stealing hundreds of dollars from players, including a man who lost $245.

That man was perturbed enough to go to police, with Detective Greg Manete saying, "Someone coming forward, saying, 'Hey, I believe this is a complete scam' and then we started connecting the dots and so it's pretty obvious."

Police went to the trailer and asked for paperwork that let them run a gaming unit in the city, but one could not be provided. The two were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, gambling, and cheating.

Speaking further about the case Manete said, "The Xbox, the PS4, they were empty boxes so people were never going to win them. I'm not sure if they even gave any prizes out. They may have given $10 prizes out just to suck people back in."

"You're taking thousands of dollars, probably, that was stolen from people, basically."

About the author

Dustin Jermalowicz // News Editor
Dustin Jermalowicz
Dustin has a long-standing passion for gambling. He has been writing professionally on the subject and breaking industry news for Casino Listings since 2011. His favorite casino games include Blackjack, Poker, and Hi/Lo. A proud native of Detroit, Dustin currently lives in Michigan.
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auCL-Ed
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1 August 2018 - 6:34am
#1

Sounds like a standard rigged carnival game...

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bgsharpe
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4 August 2018 - 5:27pm
#2

Well, this could easily get into the Dustin's tread about the ridiculous police calls(which I by the way miss a lot) the only problem is that this occurred in Ohio instead of Michigan 🙂
Can't believe that the people in fact bite on that.