Officials reviewing evidence from internet gambling raids

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Law-enforcement officials are still reviewing the truckloads of evidence they seized Wednesday from raiding three internet cafe sites purportedly involved in an illegal internet gambling operation.

Police Chief Jack Nichols said the locations are Lucky’s Internet Cafe, 685 Boardman-Canfield Road; Players Lounge in the Boardman Plaza on Boardman-Canfield Road; and Play Skilz Arcade on Market Street, south of Southern Park Mall.

Nichols said township police and agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation have barely made a dent in recovering the potential information from their evidence.

“It’ll probably be a few days by the time they go through the paperwork and some of the banking records before we do anything else,” he said.

Once the review is complete, Nichols said they will take their findings to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office to decide on potential charges.

After months of investigating, township police found the internet cafes were involved in giving cash instead of prizes, which is illegal under Ohio law for gambling.