Wednesday night a bar in the town of round lake was raided by police for housing illegal gambling.
With the help from the lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, made up of law enforcement agencies from all over the county, the round lake police raided the bar at 302 Nippersink Rd at approximately 7:45 Wednesday night.
Once inside the police found a poker tournament in progress, as well as two illegal slot machines, and according to the Chief of police in Round Lake it is also common to see people playing craps at the bar and they have regular betting pools on sporting events.
“These kinds of things take place in bars all over
Illinois” according to the Police Chief “but we had to do something here because they were flaunting it.”
The owner of the bar was taken into custody and arrested, he is expected to be charged with gambling and operating an illegal casino, he also faces charges of selling alcohol to minors from a bust several months ago.
24 people were arrested during the raid, but so far no charges have been filed on the participants in the illegal poker tournament.
The bar was part of a several month undercover operation. Several officers were sent into the bar to attempt to gamble. According to those officers you had to make friends with the bartender if they trusted you they would introduce you to the owner and you would get invited to the games.
54 police officers were involved in the operation.