{"id":57781,"date":"2025-09-03T19:41:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T23:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57781"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:23:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:23:05","slug":"bad-guys-go-to-jail-11-illegal-gambling-houses-raided-in-polk-county-joint-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/09\/03\/bad-guys-go-to-jail-11-illegal-gambling-houses-raided-in-polk-county-joint-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bad guys go to jail\u2019: 11 illegal gambling houses raided in Polk County joint operation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Auburndale Police Department and Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office raided a group of illegal gambling houses in a joint operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wednesday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Auburndale police Chief Terry Storie announced the raids while at the Discount &amp; Deli on Pilaklakaha Avenue in Auburndale.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"6d767f\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6d767f;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"442\" height=\"330\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98-2.webp?resize=442%2C330&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57782 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98-2.webp?w=442&amp;ssl=1 442w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98-2.webp?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Videos shared by the sheriff\u2019s office showed deputies removing gambling machines from the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDid you know those machines were hidden in the back room back here so you\u2019d never know they were there?\u201d Storie asked Judd on video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=314&#038;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpolkcountysheriff%2Fvideos%2F1276949014222670%2F&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=560&#038;t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"429\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf it\u2019s illegal, why are they hiding them in the back room, chief?\u201d Judd responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI wouldn\u2019t know that.\u201d Storie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNeither would I, but we got them now,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the sheriff\u2019s office, 10 other locations were raided across the county.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"616464\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #616464;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"442\" height=\"319\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98q.webp?resize=442%2C319&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57783 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98q.webp?w=442&amp;ssl=1 442w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98q.webp?resize=300%2C217&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is how you deal with people. Illegal gambling in the county, not taking payoffs like another county did,\u201d Judd said, referring to&nbsp;former Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who was arrested for his alleged role in an illegal gambling operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow, you see, this is a place where today, right now, you can\u2019t buy any Powerball, which is legal. And you also can\u2019t illegally gamble in the hidden back room. See you. Talk to you soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sheriff\u2019s office will hold a press conference to release more information the raid Thursday at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is what happens when law enforcement agencies partner up,\u201d the sheriff said. \u201cGood things happen, bad guys go to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Auburndale Police Department and Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office raided a group of illegal gambling houses in a joint operation. Wednesday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Auburndale police Chief&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"23","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDlcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtOThxLndlYnA_Zml0PTQ0MiUyQzMxOSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ilx1MjAxOEJhZCBndXlzIGdvIHRvIGphaWxcdTIwMTk6IDExIGlsbGVnYWwgZ2FtYmxpbmcgaG91c2VzIHJhaWRlZCBpbiBQb2xrIENvdW50eSBqb2ludCBvcGVyYXRpb24iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.KtVuPXoT2BJmOHxyZSsUadkN6xCpy6fZzrxr5-X2VsAMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57783,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-98q.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[12151],"class_list":["post-57781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-bad-guys-go-to-jail-11-illegal-gambling-houses-raided-in-polk-county-joint-operation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57815,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57781\/revisions\/57815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}