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Gambling bust nets 5 arrests
Investigator: Ludowici men operating gaming trailer from parking lot
KACLUM MARTIN KAUSTA
Kausta Martin Kaclum - photo by Special

    Bulloch County Sheriff's investigators shut down a mobile gambling operation Tuesday after receiving complaints about dice games and cash payouts.
    Five Ludowici men operating a mobile gaming trailer parked at a convenience store on U.S. 301 South across from Ogeechee Technical College and set up shop, apparently offering stuffed animals as prizes, but in reality handing cash out to winners, said Capt. Todd Hutchens, Bulloch County Sheriff's chief investigator.
    Describing the set-up as a "carnie-style trailer" pulled by a white Chevrolet truck, Hutchens said the men had been operating the gambling deal at other locations in the county over the last few weeks.  After receiving several complaints, sheriff's investigators were informed that the men had returned, he said.
    Sheriff's Inv. Kent Munsey went undercover and played the dice games, where "people were allowed to roll dice, but instead of a stuffed animal (which were displayed on  the trailer) they were given money," he said.
    After Munsey won cash, he called Bulloch County Inv. Bill Black, who along with Deputies Ross Newman and Travis Tuenge, responded to the scene and arrested all five men involved, Hutchens said.
    Randall Wayne Roach, 59, Rt. 3. Ludowici; Kausta Martin Kaclum, 30, Rt. 2, Ludowici; James Johnson, 45, Benton Bay Road, Ludowici; George Allen Thomas, 47, Beard's Bluff Road, Ludowici; and William Russell Holtz, 50, Rt. 4, Ludowici, were all charged with commercial gambling and keeping a gambling place, he said.
    Roach was also charged with obstruction of an officer. Johnson and Kaclum were also charged with giving false identity information to officers.
    Hutchens said all five men have extensive criminal histories in Georgia and other states, including previous gambling offenses.
    The men were taken to the Bulloch County Jail t await bond, he said. The truck and trailer were confiscated and towed.

 

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