Police Make 33 Arrests In Gambling Raid
Husband, Wife Ran Alleged Shelbyville Operation
POSTED: 6:45 pm CDT August 13,
2008
UPDATED: 7:44 pm CDT August 13,
2008
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Police said an illegal gambling operation is no longer in business in Shelbyville after a raid and dozens of arrests.
Video: Police Arrest 33 People In Gambling RaidOfficers said that several times during the week, people would line up outside a small building for a chance to play high-dollar poker.The building was dubbed Little Tunica by police, and officers said with full admission price, people got access to poker and a full buffet of food.Local residents said the games were drawing big crowds a couple of nights per week."I didn’t ever really know what was going on over there," said local resident Chris McBee. "I just knew it was always a lot of people."Police said they arrested 33 people including James and Christina Tucker. Investigators said the husband and wife team ran the place.Officers said that patrons would pay between $200 and $1,000 to get in the game. About $48,000 in cash was found during the raid."A Tuesday night poker game, that’s a very large amount of money. From our previous surveillance, we’d seen upwards of 50 people attending these poker games," said Shelbyville police Detective Brian Crews.The biggest concern for police was the crowd that was being drawn to the place. Officers said they found pills and several guns inside."Some of them had violent convictions as well as drug offenses, and we just particularly don’t like that type of clientele coming into the city," Crews said."Kids and their parents walk through here to go to the store or something like that. It’s pretty bad if there were bad groups coming in there," McBee said.Officers said they think the operation had been open for about a year and that it was well known.People from all over the state came to the building to gamble, police said.
Video: Police Arrest 33 People In Gambling RaidOfficers said that several times during the week, people would line up outside a small building for a chance to play high-dollar poker.The building was dubbed Little Tunica by police, and officers said with full admission price, people got access to poker and a full buffet of food.Local residents said the games were drawing big crowds a couple of nights per week."I didn’t ever really know what was going on over there," said local resident Chris McBee. "I just knew it was always a lot of people."Police said they arrested 33 people including James and Christina Tucker. Investigators said the husband and wife team ran the place.Officers said that patrons would pay between $200 and $1,000 to get in the game. About $48,000 in cash was found during the raid."A Tuesday night poker game, that’s a very large amount of money. From our previous surveillance, we’d seen upwards of 50 people attending these poker games," said Shelbyville police Detective Brian Crews.The biggest concern for police was the crowd that was being drawn to the place. Officers said they found pills and several guns inside."Some of them had violent convictions as well as drug offenses, and we just particularly don’t like that type of clientele coming into the city," Crews said."Kids and their parents walk through here to go to the store or something like that. It’s pretty bad if there were bad groups coming in there," McBee said.Officers said they think the operation had been open for about a year and that it was well known.People from all over the state came to the building to gamble, police said.Copyright 2009 by WSMV.com. All rights reserved.
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