Video gaming machines seized

Police raid on Southeast Baltimore tavern is second in two days in state comptroller's effort to crack down on illegal gambling

By Peter Hermann

September 6, 2008

The vice squad raid on an Eastern Avenue bar netted three gaming machines and $1,753. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis / September 5, 2008)

Authorities raided a corner bar in Southeast Baltimore yesterday and seized three video gaming machines that police said were used for illegal gambling, part of an effort by the Maryland Comptroller's Office to crack down on such devices in taverns and liquor establishments across the state.

Baltimore police vice detectives carrying a pry bar and a sledge hammer walked into the Colonial Inn at Eastern Avenue and Washington Street, ordered a handful of patrons to leave and seized the machines and $1,753. Police and agents with the comptroller's office also walked out with beer boxes stuffed with financial records.

The 3 p.m. raid was the second in as many days linked to the initiative announced in June by Comptroller Peter Franchot, who has vowed to use the tax collector's office to rid bars of gaming machines that in many cases are licensed for "amusement purposes only" but which state officials contend are really used for gambling.

Caron A. Brace, a spokeswoman for Franchot's office, said police seized additional gaming machines on Thursday from Sid's Tavern in the 1100 block of Washington Blvd. in the Pigtown neighborhood. She said at Sid's and the Colonial Inn, bartenders were paying winners of the machines with money from the cash registers.

"There are more raids to come," Brace said.

The Colonial Inn, owned for the past 11 years by Leroy Hartman, 67, was closed for about two hours while police searched the narrow establishment. Hartman was charged with three gambling offenses. Hartman said the machines - which the state typically destroys after confiscating them - did not belong to him but cost about $3,000 each. He denied that anyone was paid off for winning. "I really don't know what this is all about," he said. "They just came in here and went through everything. They were real nice and polite. They took all my accounting stuff and my files. I don't know what's going on with the machines."

The owner said he is retired, on Social Security and makes little money running the bar, which is a narrow corner rowhouse with worn stools and cheap beer. He advertises $1 drafts, and inside there are six taps, all Budweiser. He said between the smoking ban, the higher costs for electricity and gas and his $2,000-a month rent, "If I make $30 a night, it's a blessing."

As police worked inside, customers piled up outside, chatting and smoking and anxious to get back to their drinks. None said they ever played the video machines. "They don't pay out," said George Brown, 61.