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Josh Salman and Derek Gilliam/Suncoast Searchlight

  • During the past 12 months alone, the Florida Gaming Control Commission received 39 reports of illegal gambling in Manatee County and 75 in Sarasota County, according to the agency. The vast majority involved “arcades.”
    Crime
    As Manatee targets illegal casinos, other counties’ crackdowns paid off
    Josh Salman and Derek Gilliam/Suncoast Searchlight
    Marion County was riddled with storefront gambling dens — until it passed a local ordinance in 2021 that gave deputies more power to shut them down. Within months, the slot-machine parlors vanished.Sumter County saw similar results after adopting its own rules that same year. The 13 gambling businesses once scattered across the rural county are now gone, local officials said.Now Manatee County is preparing to follow their lead. Commissioners voted this week to move forward with a proposal modeled on those counties’ ordinances, hoping to replicate their success in wiping out illegal “arcades” that have long operated with little consequence.