The owner of a North Little Rock convenience store, arrested after a gambling raid last year, was sentenced Monday to a one-year suspended jail term and fined $1,500.
Athar Hamid Anjum, 50, who has residences in Little Rock and Kenner, La., pleaded guilty before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright to misdemeanor conspiracy to keep a gambling house.
Anjum, the owner of the Valero store at 2541 Arkansas 161, and two employees were arrested Sept. 26 by North Little Rock police after a 12-day investigation into gambling at the gas station.
Arrested with Anjum were cashier Saleem Raja Shaik, 25, of Bryant and store clerk Diorinda O. Silber, 58, of North Little Rock. Each was charged with felony keeping a gambling house, which carries a six-year maximum sentence, but each pleaded to a misdemeanor charge.
Shaik, represented by attorney Birc Morledge, was the first to plead guilty to conspiracy to keep a gambling house. He received a one-year suspended sentence and a $500 fine in May.
Silber pleaded no contest Monday to keeping a gaming device and was fined $500. Both she and Anjum were represented Monday by defense attorney Erin Cassinelli.
In a Sept. 14 late-morning raid, police seized $5,983, 14 video gambling machines, payout receipts and tickets, a set of locks and a bag of Skittles candy, according to a police report.
According to arrest warrants, three undercover officers had used a digital gambling machine with the help of three store workers.
One undercover officer played $20 of North Little Rock Police Department funds and won back $66 from the gambling machine, which was inside the gas station. Anjum verified the winnings and gave the officer the money from the front register.
The second officer played $20 and won back $12, with Anjum verifying the winnings and giving the officer money from the register.
The third undercover officer won $46 but was told by an attendant that he would have to return when an owner was present to get his winnings. When he went back later, Shaik told him he would have to buy $10 in store merchandise to get $36 in cash.
One of the undercover officers returned to the store and used $30 to win two tickets for a total of $7, and Silber told the officer to buy $2 worth of merchandise to get $5 in winnings.
Anjum had initially challenged the legality of the felony gambling charge. In arguing for the charge to be dismissed, attorney Jordan Tinsley described the machines at the Valero as "video amusement devices that customers could play for amusement and to obtain credits they could redeem for merchandise or, in some circumstances, cash."
Tinsley argued that the anti-gambling law should be struck down because the statute Arkansas Code 5-66-103 is so vague that Anjum had no reason to believe the machines were illegal. The machines are also subjected to conflicting laws since they were licensed and taxed by the state.
"Here, the devices at the Valero allowed customers to purchase credits to be used in exchange for gameplay. Participating in the gameplay rendered the player eligible for prize rewards. Under the plain language of the sweepstakes statutes, these promotions constitute 'a legal form of advertising.' Therefore, it was reasonable for the defendant to believe that his business activity constituted a permissible promotion rather than illegal gambling," Tinsley stated in written arguments. "One cannot expect the defendant to guess or speculate as to what is or is not permissible when one statute allows the conduct and the other statute purports to prohibit the conduct."
Metro on 08/16/2019