Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Eight men face more than 100 charges in Wise County for allegedly operating illegal gambling houses along the town of Appalachia's Main Street. While the buildings were vacant by day, prosecutors allege, they were a hive of clandestine activity at night as card players and gamblers looking to place bets on sporting events made their way to the back rooms. The eight men were indicted by a special grand jury and more indictments will follow, said special prosecutor David Childers. "We are going after the organizers, the bigwigs. We're not going after the patrons." Childers declined to be specific about how many people frequented the covert gaming houses over the years, but said, "It was a lot, a very, very lot." According to indictments handed up late Tuesday, each of the eight men faces a charge of operating a continuous gambling enterprise. One is accused of running a gaming operation for nearly five years, from Sept. 11, 2001, to May 6, 2006. Other charges included in the indictments are money laundering, supervising an illegal gambling operation, conducting transactions with illegal gambling proceeds and possessing gaming devices. When authorities shuttered the gambling houses in May, they seized more than $400,000. Special prosecutors' probe of illicit gambling in Appalachia (population 1,839) grew out of an investigation of corruption in the mayor's office and Town Hall. As a result of that investigation, last month eight town leaders -- including a former mayor, a former town police captain, a leader of the local rescue squad, a former Town Hall employee and two uncles of a former town councilman -- pleaded guilty to their roles in stealing the May 2004 town election.

Prosecutors have alleged that former Mayor Ben Cooper and others wanted control of Town Hall and the police force partly so that the illegal gambling could continue unchecked. None of those involved in the election fraud were named in the gambling indictments.

Cooper pleaded guilty to 233 felony counts involving vote fraud and was convicted by a judge of 10 more. He is to be sentenced today and faces up to 21 years in prison.