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In Santa Cruz County California there was another incident of illegal slots gaming. This time it was a market on Ocean Street called La Esperanza Market that was operating illegal quarter-per-wager slots games. The games were estimated to be bringing in between $2,000 to $3,000 in revenue every month. Of course the owners were taking the money under the table and paying no necessary taxes on it. This is part of the issue. Locations within every state that are allowed to hold slots games or any other gambling game for that matter, portion out part of their revenue to the state. This is the agreement- they are allowed to operate the games in exchange for a licensing fee and part of their revenue in tax dollars. This is how the state benefits from games it allows to operate. Though this is a tried and true formula for both parties to benefit, there are still some businesses that take their chances with the games and opt to look at the potential revenue rather than the legality of it all. This is a bad move because legislators are coming down hard on the businesses that are opting to break the law with illegal slots games. They know that this is money they aren’t seeing in tax revenue dollars. For example, the Esperanza Market on average was bringing in anywhere from $24,000 to $36,000 in total revenue from the slots games. This means that the state did not get their portion of that, which normally would be between $2,400 to $3,600.
Overall the instances of illegal slots gaming are cropping up around the country. Now that people understand the games and how popular they are, they are trying to use them to increase their revenues. In particular if they can do it in a tax-free way, they are going to take advantage of it. This is causing legislators to shore up their gaming laws and task police forces with investigation into problems. Many police forces are creating special task forces to focus on the issue with illegal gambling. It isn’t worth taking the chance at the games, but there are still business owners who are willing to take their chances.