3 plead guilty to commercial gambling
Three people who owned local convenience stores that were the subject of law enforcement raids in December 2015 plead guilty on Tuesday to charges of commercial gambling.
Three people pled guilty to commercial gambling charges Tuesday in Floyd County Superior Court, being sentenced to 10 years on probation and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
Mehrunnisha Kalavant, of 121 Melody Lane; Courtney Sky Pope, of 27 Boulder Drive; and Madhur Gupta, of 110 S. Cloudview Road, entered guilty pleas on charges of commercial gambling and false statements and writings. Pope and Gupta pled guilty to two counts each of the charges.
The three of them were indicted last December on charges connected to cash payouts from gaming machines at convenience stores, according to previous reports. They were the owners of local convenience stores which were the subject of raids and investigations in December 2015 by GBI and Georgia Lottery Corp. officials.
“These stores that engage in this type of activity are a blight on our community,” said District Attorney Leigh Patterson.
GBI officials previously said they were giving customers cash payouts for winning credits on the gaming machines. Based on state law, credits can only be redeemed for lottery tickets and store merchandise, not cash. But they were covering up this part of the operation of the machines in their stores.
According to Assistant District Attorney Kevin Salmon:
At the time of their arrests, Kalavant ran the One Stop Shop at 2017 Maple Ave.; Pope operated Lucky Lotto No. 3 and Sammy’s Salvage, both in the 1300 block of Shorter Avenue; and Gupta owned the Maple Quick Stop at 1912 Maple Ave. and the EZ Mart at 1120 Calhoun Road.
The false statements and writings charges stem from the application process they had to complete with the state Department of Revenue to be permitted to have the gaming machines in their stores. All three were delinquent on sales and use taxes to the state, but they answered on the application that they were not.
Kalavant and Pope must pay $1,000 fines, while Gupta does not have to pay any. The restitution payments are $47,177.90 for Kalavant, $155,733.70 for Pope and $56,214.04 for Gupta.
Kalavant and Gupta also agreed to destroy the gaming machines at their stores.
Judge Billy Sparks granted requests from Kalavant and Pope-for-first-offender-status. If they complete the terms of their sentence they will not have a conviction on their record.
Also, Sparks said if Kalavant pays his fine and restitution, he could petition to have his probation reduced. Similarly, if Pope completes payments of her fines and restitution within five years, she could apply to have the remainder of her probation terminated.
Imran Kalavant, of 121 Melody Lane, and Jitendra Raval, of Dallas, are also facing commercial gambling charges from the 2015 investigations. Their cases have been continued and will be put on a future court calendar. Imran Kalavant ran the One Stop Shop for All at 1433 N. Broad St. and Raval owned Garden Lakes Food and Beverage at 2202 Redmond Circle.
Following the raids on the seven local businesses in 2015, all but one of the stores had re opened within a month after being shuttered when the owners were arrested.
Police and government officials have for years indicated numerous problems with the gaming machines in convenience stores. The stores can become targets for armed robberies or break-ins due to the holding of large amounts of cash in stores and for the money in the machines, police say.
Of the revenue from each gaming machine, the Lottery Corp. gets 7 percent for HOPE Scholarship programs. But local governments do not get sales tax from the plays on the machines.