San Jose police officers and FBI agents raided 11 Vietnamese cafes Tuesday night, in a major operation to root out illegal gambling machines, reports NBC Bay Area.
The raids, known as “Operation Omni,” has been billed as San Jose’s largest ever crackdown on illegal gambling.
The video below shows people who were inside one of the cafes during the raid. The customers and staff didn’t have much to say after being busted. One sunglasses-wearing man told the reporter: “This is a coffee shop. No gambling. I don’t know anything.”
According to police, all the slot machines combined can bring in up to $100,000 a week in illegal gaming. But its not just the unregulated profits that concerned the po po. NBC writes,
A woman inside one of the coffee shops was only partially clothed, and many of the coffee shops sold liquor without liquor licenses.
This isn’t the first time San Jose cafes have stirred up trouble. San Jose’s Vietnamese coffee shops were given a talking to by police who were concerned about waitresses wearing revealing lingerie.
Good news: there are several types of legal gambling in California, including: card rooms, Native American casinos, the Lottery, and race tracks. So head to San Jose Fair Downs or buy a scratch ticket the next time you get the urge to gamble.
[via NBC Bay Area]