SC Video Poker Kingpin to Pay $1M to Federal Government

US District Judge Sherri Lydon has sentenced 68-year-old F.M. to six months in prison for running an illegal gambling operation in a suburb of South Carolina’s capital. Along with the prison term, M. agreed to forfeit $1 million as part of the case.

Undercover Work

Federal prosecutors described M., a well-known businessman in Lexington County, as “the leader of a relatively large-scale gambling organization”. The operation involved multiple illegal video poker machines, which prosecutors said could generate up to $100,000 a week. The gambling operation reportedly ran daily from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., necessitating two shifts of workers to keep the machines operational.

The case came to light after tips suggested people were gambling and losing money at M.’s property. That led to an undercover investigation in April and June 2023, during which a plainclothes federal agent played some of the machines to gather evidence. 

According to the indictment, M.’s property housed over 25 Pot O’ Gold slots and other video gambling terminals capable of playing Joker Poker, Jacks or Better, Keno, Deuces Wild, and Shamrock Ts. The latter is a game popular in the southern US, similar in style to mobile casino games like Shamrock Lock.

“A Local Business Operation”, Argued Defense 

M.’s attorneys, Jim Griffin and Victor Li, asked for a sentence without prison time, arguing the lack of evidence linking their client’s operation to organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, or other offenses that often accompany illegal gambling. 

“This was essentially a local business operation, not a sophisticated criminal enterprise,” they explained, emphasizing that M’s activities, while illegal, did not involve broader criminal networks.

Prosecutors, however, were blunt about pushing for a longer sentence, recommending at least 12 months in prison amid the scale of the operation and its potential profits, which, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lothrop Morris, “involved at least five employees”.

Nonetheless, as per Morris’ filing, M. had been arrested before on state illegal gambling charges, once in 1993 for bookmaking and once in 2008 for gambling at a gaming house.

The law allows for a maximum prison term of five years for conspiracy to engage in an illegal gambling enterprise.

Judge Lydon ultimately decided on a six-month prison sentence in a hearing at the Columbia federal courthouse, balancing the scale of the operation with the absence of ties to other serious crimes. The $1 million forfeiture will go to the Secret Service as part of the judgment.