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Gambling case
By jeanne starmack
girard
A trial date for a man charged with running an illegal gambling establishment has been postponed.
The trial for Adam Syed will be reset from Oct. 23 after the defense has had time to review videotapes it did not receive during the discovery phase of the case, defense attorney Charles W. Olminsky Jr. said after a status hearing Thursday in Girard Municipal Court.
The court directed the prosecution to turn over the tapes within 14 days.
They include a recording taken inside the business, Belmont Sweeps on Belmont Avenue, Liberty, by an undercover officer during an investigation, and recordings of two witnesses, Olminsky said.
Syed was charged in February after the investigation. He has pleaded innocent.
At issue is whether the machines in the business were slot machines or sweepstakes machines, Olminsky said. Slot machines are random, but sweepstakes machines have a finite number of outcomes and were allowed under state law, he said.
The defense contends the business had sweepstakes machines. A hearing to qualify an expert to testify about them will take place seven days before the trial.