{"id":326217,"date":"2024-07-25T18:54:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T23:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=326217"},"modified":"2024-07-25T18:54:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T23:54:56","slug":"florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Gambling Den Owner Wants Confiscated $142K Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner the Golden Nugget Arcade in Palm Beach Gardens is asking authorities to return the $142,029 in cash seized from the venue when it was shut down for illegal gambling and money laundering in September 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Golden
A patron celebrates a jackpot at the Golden Nugget Arcade in Palm Beach Gardens prior to its 2022 closure for offering illegal slots. (Image: Yelp\/Golden Nugget Arcade)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cynthia Patel, from Dayton, Ohio, claims she purchased the Golden Nugget six months before it was raided by the police, The Palm Beach Post<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

She argues the money belongs to the business that generated it, and she wants the 15th<\/sup> Judicial Circuit Court of Florida to order the city to give it back.<\/p>\n

Florida Crackdown <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Golden Nugget was targeted as part of a wave of raids<\/a> against illegal slot machines at adult arcades across the state. Since the pandemic, there had been a marked increase in new arcades springing up in strip malls or in vacant stores.<\/p>\n

Slot machines that give out cash or prizes are illegal in Florida outside the\u00a0Seminole Tribe\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0six reservations and certain pari-mutuel facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.<\/p>\n

\n

The Post<\/em> reported at the time that Ralph Deluca was the Golden Nugget\u2019s owner. In May 2023, he pleaded guilty to money laundering, keeping a gambling house, working for a gambling house, and unlawful manufacture, sale or possession of coin-operated devices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He was sentenced to 14 days\u2019 time served and ordered to pay court fees of $900. The Golden Nugget\u2019s manager, Nicholas Fiore, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced to eight days\u2019 time served.<\/p>\n

Case Called \u2018Absurd\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

City Attorney R. Max Lohman told The Post he was incredulous about Patel\u2019s complaint. He described it as \u201chighly suspect\u201d because she had provided no evidence that she owned the arcade. He also labeled it \u201cabsurd,\u201d as the cash had been confiscated because the business had been breaking the law.<\/p>\n

The city filed to seize the money through\u00a0civil forfeiture, a legal process that permits authorities to commandeer property linked to crimes<\/p>\n

If you make money selling cocaine, you don\u2019t get the cocaine or the money back,\u201d Lohman said. \u201cIn this case, the money is in fact the cocaine. The money wasn\u2019t just the instrumentality of the crime. It is the crime.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhile it is cash, it is contraband cash,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is proceeds from an illegal operation.”<\/p>\n

The case is scheduled to be heard by Circuit Judge Luis Delgado on August 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner the Golden Nugget Arcade in Palm Beach Gardens is asking authorities to return the $142,029 in cash seized from the venue when it was shut down for illegal gambling and money laundering in September 2022. Cynthia Patel, from Dayton, Ohio, claims she purchased the Golden Nugget six months before it was raided by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":326218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,88702,60,86436],"tags":[13700,91812,82370,82103,91813,81890],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlorida Gambling Den Owner Wants Confiscated $142K Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Someone claiming to be the owner of the Golden Nugget Arcade, a shuttered business in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. wants their money back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida Gambling Den Owner Wants Confiscated $142K Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Someone claiming to be the owner of the Golden Nugget Arcade, a shuttered business in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. wants their money back.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-25T23:54:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Golden-nug.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/\",\"name\":\"Florida Gambling Den Owner Wants Confiscated $142K Back\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Golden-nug.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-25T23:54:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-25T23:54:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Someone claiming to be the owner of the Golden Nugget Arcade, a shuttered business in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. wants their money back.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-gambling-den-owner-wants-confiscated-142k-back\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Golden-nug.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Golden-nug.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":724,\"caption\":\"A patron celebrates a jackpot at the Golden Nugget Arcade in Palm Beach Gardens prior to its 2022 closure for offering illegal slots. 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