Raids lead to charges against companies led by OneTime Video Poker Kingpin

A number of raids for video gambling last year in the southwest of Pennsylvania have led to criminal charges against two companies that were associated with John “Duffy” Conley, the unique video poker kingpin by Western Pennsylvania.

The investigators confiscated more than 400 illegal video game machines from locations in a dozen counties, including Allegheny and West Moreland.

On Tuesday, the general prosecutor's office in Pennsylvania announced that Buffalo Skill Games Inc. in Bridgeville and JJ Amusement Inc. was charged on the south side of Pittsburgh due to corrupt organizations.

The General Prosecutor's office said that both companies belong to Conley and are operated by Conley, which was not charged.

Conley has a story of arrests and prison time for game crimes.

On March 12, 2024, the authorities carried out dozens of raids in convenience stores, bars, restaurants, petrol stations and independent shop fronts who worked as mini-casinos. They not only confiscated the play engines, but also more than 538,000 US dollars in cash.

Buffalo Skills Games and JJ Amusement Inc. provided the play equipment in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Crawford, Indiana, Somerset, Venango, Erie, Washington, Armstrong and Westmoreland Counties.

Ability vs. chance

Undercover Pennsylvania State Police Investigators and Agents from the General Prosecutor's office have exchanged 47 locations that are known that they have video play equipment to determine whether they were illegal gambling machines or legal “skills”.

The decisive factor of whether a video game device that carries out a payment is illegal said the complaint whether the result of the game is mainly determined by the player's ability or by chance.

“The officials found that the vast majority of the machines in question did not have a” ability to play “feature,” the complaint said and made them illegal according to the law of Pennsylvania. “In some places, only one single machine had such a” skills “; none did in most places.”

When checking the machines in question, the investigators said that they checked whether the machines had taken cash or a voucher redeemable for cash.

During the raids, soldiers and agents carried out search command at places such as Carnegie, North Versailles, Mckses Rocks, Pittsburgh's north side, New Kensington, Monaca, Cranberry, Johnstown, Linesville, Titusville, Blairs, Somerset, Franklin and Oil City.

According to the complaint, it was a productive day.

The investigators said they found three illegal video play equipment in Pittsburgh Mills in Frazer and 11,506 US dollars in cash.

Chrissys News Mini Casino in North Versailles had 18 illegal machines, said the general prosecutor's office, while a handful of locations had 15, including winning everything in the mall in Butler, where $ 41,000 were confiscated, and in the 777 mini casino in Aliquippa.

In most cases, these facilities had Ticket -Redemption terminals in which tickets could be redeemed with the profits of the machines for this.

Another search command that was carried out in the warehouse of the companies in Homestead achieved $ 175,087 in cash as well as a sophisticated video surveillance system, which according to the complaint maintains the gaming machines. Dozens of monitors showed one or more camera views about the video play equipment that “records all gambling activities at dozens of locations,” the complaint said.

The monitors were marked by the town and delivered live audio and video feeds.

Financial records of investigators for several bank accounts showed that companies will again invest profits from illegal devices in maintenance, operation and growth, the complaint said.

The General Prosecutor's office said the investigation was not yet complete.

“Pathological player”

The 61-year-old Conley spent more than a dozen years in the federal prison after convicting of conspiracy in 1995 and led a video gambling organization of $ 15 million a year. According to the public prosecutor, Conley has supervised 4,000 video poker machines.

He was instructed to serve nine years in prison and released in January 2004.

But he was arrested again by February 2006 because he had violated the conditions of his supervised publication by gambling.

At that time, according to the investigators, he accepted and created betting of other bookmakers with millions of dollars.

At a court hearing from 2006 for violating his supervised publication, Conley claimed to have gambling dependency.

In this hearing, a pastoral consultant said that Conley was “a pathological player” whose activities began at the age of 9.

His gambling was compulsive at the age of 16.

“I used to think that gambling was good, harmless,” Conley told the court. “Now I notice that it's destructive and evil.”

A judge ordered Conley to spend four years in the federal prison.

In 2009, Conley was guilty of leading an illegal gambling business and had to serve for three more years.

At that time even the government thought that Conley should no longer serve time, and realized that he had probably spent more time behind bars for crimes in connection with gambling than any other person in the history of the western district of Pennsylvania.

“There is a time in which enough is enough,” wrote the deputy US lawyer Brendan Conway, “and the government believes that we have reached this point, and further believes that the defendant should now get another chance to live a productive and criminal life.”

Court files show that Conley in Pennsylvania had no additional arrests in Delaware County until 2023 and then last year in Cumberland County.

In the case of Cumberland, Conley was suspended 30 initial charges, but was guilty on March 17, only a offense of gaming equipment.

He received no further punishment.