Garden Grove, Orange County - Garden Grove Police have cracked down on racy Vietnamese cafes where waitresses wear less than the typical coffeehouse worker, but Garden Grove officials claim inside these coffeehouses in the heart of Orange County's Vietnamese community illegal gambling was taking place.
In March the city seized over 180 arcade machines and $145,000 in cash.
Westminster criminal defense attorney Michael L. Guisti explains owning and operating a gambling machine is a violation of Penal Code (PC) 330, which is a misdemeanor and if convicted you could face up to $1,000 or six months in Orange County jail.
Attorney Guisti says it's important to understand even if you own a slot machine for your own personal entertainment you need to make sure it doesn't accept money nor pay money or anything of value, but even then you could face some problems. Guisti says he has seen cases where people have had their personal slot machines seized and fined $1,000, because the machine accepted money.
Fullerton criminal attorney Guisti says that under PC 330.4 anybody, "who permits to be placed, maintained or kept in any room, space, enclosure, or building owned, leased or occupied by him, or under his management or control, whether for use or operation or for storage, bailment, safekeeping or deposit only, any slot machine or device [...] is guilty of a misdemeanor."
As you can see simply having a slot machine or other gambling device can get you into a lot trouble, however if you have what is deemed to be an "antique slot machine," which is a machine 25 years or older, you shouldn't have any problem as long as it doesn't accept money, according to Guisti
Orange County criminal attorney Guisti says California gambling laws or very strict and highly complex and simply owning a gambling machine for your own personal amusement and/or simply using it for a piece of furniture can possibly get you a misdemeanor on your record.
If you or somebody you know have been convicted of owning a gambling machine you could have an expungement done to clear your name.
If you've recently been arrested and charged for allegedly owning an illegal gambling device call the Orange County Law Offices of Michael L. Guisti now at 888-478-8999 so our California gambling attorney experts can review your case and help keep this misdemeanor charge off your record and possibly return the item to you.
