JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office says two men have been arrested after a raid uncovered what investigators describe as an illegal gambling house operating out of an unmarked building on the city\u2019s Northside.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest report, 32-year-old Mahab Alhanna and 39-year-old Stanley Burke were taken into custody after JSO\u2019s Vice Unit and SWAT team executed a search warrant Friday night at a building on Haverford Road. Officers found multiple gambling machines inside, which were seized and released to the Florida Gaming Commission.<\/p>\n
JSO said in the report that its Vice Unit has taken note of a growing number of illegal gambling establishments across Duval County, often marketed as \u201cInternet Cafes\u201d or \u201cAdult Arcades.\u201d Many of these businesses, the agency said, have no signs outside and little indication of what\u2019s actually happening inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of the JSO Vice Unit have taken note of the growing number of illegal gambling establishments within the Duval County area,\u201d the report states. \u201cPatrol officers in Duval County have responded to these gambling establishments for a variety of crimes to include homicides, shootings, robberies, and burglaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Investigators say because large amounts of cash are often kept inside, many of these game rooms hire armed security guards to protect the business \u2014 a move that\u2019s led to violent incidents in the past.<\/p>\n Attorney Chris Carson told Action News Jax these kinds of operations can rake in significant money, which is part of what keeps them going.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime there is a lot of money that theoretically could be made, you always end up with people who are willing to run the risk of something like this happening \u2014 being arrested or prosecuted for it \u2014 because there\u2019s just so much money,\u201d Carson said.<\/p>\n JSO says the gaming machines found inside included \u201cFire Link,\u201d \u201cFish Table,\u201d and internet-based slot games, all considered illegal under Florida law.<\/p>\n The report shows Alhanna was taken into custody outside the building as SWAT officers executed the search. Both Alhanna and Burke were booked into the Duval County Jail.<\/p>\n They\u2019re each facing charges of aiding in a lottery, owning a slot machine, and keeping a gambling house.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office says two men have been arrested after a raid uncovered what…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,147312,5229,12854,39440,54760,13037,13029,12187,147311,3188,723,147313,147309,11561,7310,13040,13035,8423,425,147310,147307,38102,147308,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-286177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-alhanna","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-attorney","12":"tag-burke","13":"tag-chris_carson","14":"tag-deja","15":"tag-deja_mayfield","16":"tag-duval_county","17":"tag-firelink","18":"tag-fl","19":"tag-florida","20":"tag-florida_gambling_commission","21":"tag-haverford_road","22":"tag-jack","23":"tag-jacksonville","24":"tag-jacksonville_sheriff","25":"tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","26":"tag-jso","27":"tag-local","28":"tag-maha_alana","29":"tag-mahab_alhana","30":"tag-north_side","31":"tag-stanley_burke","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-united-states-of-america","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}