80 Slot Machines Seized, 5 Suspects Arrested in Raids

In a bid to crush an alleged illegal gambling operation, police raided 37 homes and businesses in Orange and Los Angeles counties Tuesday, arresting five people and confiscating about 80 video slot machines.

Authorities said the ringleaders, based in south Orange County, had made $400,000 last month alone from the illicit machines, and appeared to be funneling at least part of their profits to New York and Chicago.

The rigged video machines were placed in Vietnamese-owned arcades, cafes, billiard halls and beauty parlors in Asian neighborhoods of Westminster, Garden Grove, El Monte and Rosemead, police said.

Many businesses in Orange County’s Little Saigon district refused the machines. But those businesses that accepted them at times drew customers who stood seven deep in line to play, police said.

One of those arrested Tuesday, identified as Michael Spain, boasted to an undercover Garden Grove police officer in February, “It’s not unusual for a guy to make $2,000 a week on a machine. I got one guy making $8,000 a week, four machines.”

During the conversation, which was videotaped by police, Spain also promised to be on call 24 hours a day to service the machines.

“We’ve got them all over the United States,” Spain said on the police videotape. “Big, big, big business. We’re out of (Las) Vegas.”

The investigation began last October, when police in Westminster and Garden Grove first received reports of illegal gambling machines. Suspecting that the machines might be coming from Los Angeles, local police asked Los Angeles Police Detective Carl Olson--who broke up a similar gambling ring in 1983--to spearhead the investigation.

Ultimately, the trail led south into Orange County and back to the East Coast, where some of the machines were manufactured by Greyhound Electronics Inc. of Toms River, N.J., police said.

Spain was arrested at his San Clemente home early Tuesday. Two other suspects, William Lee, 40, of Los Angeles and Dallas, and Gerald Brim, 36, of the San Diego area, were arrested at a Costa Mesa apartment where at least 15 loaded firearms, including assault rifles and shotguns, also were found, police said.

Two other suspects, who identified themselves as Michael A. Dicenzo, 26, of San Clemente, and Jay D. Gardner of the Toms River area of New Jersey, were arrested at a Laguna Hills warehouse where video machines were being repaired.

The five suspects were booked on suspicion of conspiring to distribute and maintain slot machines, a felony. Police said they are still seeking four other suspects and hunting for more evidence that might connect the suspected ring to other East Coast crime organizations. Authorities believe some of the suspects are using multiple aliases and said it may take some time before their true identities are determined.

Eight business owners in El Monte and two in Garden Grove were also cited for permitting illegal slot machines, a misdemeanor charge, and released, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Garden Grove police officers said.