Video Poker has been banned in South Carolina for several years but it hasn't stopped some people from playing illegal. Pappy's is a popular restaurant in Charleston County and it was filled with authorities after an investigation led to seizure of 34 video poker machines, $400,000 dollars and three arrests.

This came as a surprise to some people but not to the areas law enforcement who say that video gambling is alive and well and living underground in the Palmetto state. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said that underground video poker locations are all around Richland County. "We have not gotten rid of it," Lott said. "It's still here--there's still a big demand for it."

This isn't the only area that has a problem with underground video poker, there were 113 video poker machines confiscated in Berkley. Charleston, Jasper and Dorchester counties. There were still more machines seized in Florence, Horry, Allendale, Williamsburg and Clarendon.

The good thing is that the numbers keep going down, in 2003 there were over 1,000 machines taken by SLED and 30 arrests made. The numbers were event higher in 2004 with 1,551 machines confiscated and 102 arrests and at the end of 2007 there were another 1,200 plus machines taken and 62 arrests. SLED said that some of the machines are taken from warehouses so not all of the machines were in use.









- 2008-06-03