Owner asks court to return video poker machines

Arguing their client was an innocent third party and that video poker machines aren't necessarily contraband, lawyers for a New Jersey company that owns the 119 video poker machines seized during a May 2007 police raid in Blacksburg are asking the court to return them.

Agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office seized the 119 gambling machines on May 7, 2007, during a raid at 307 Quarry Road. The machines had been set up in several stationary rail cars that had been converted into a casino on wheels. Following the seizure, a Cherokee County magistrate ruled the machines should be forfeited under South Carolina law.

Attorneys Jack Scoville Jr. and Sam Scoville, who represent New Jersey-based Nova Leasing, argued Monday in Cherokee County Court the machines, valued at $500,000, should be returned to their owner.

Scoville Jr. said his client leased the machines to another company, Low Country Amusements, which then subleased the machines to a third party, Williams Railroad.

"He (my client) didn't have anything to do with putting them in Cherokee County," Scoville Jr. said.

And, technically, he said the gambling devices aren't illegal to possess based on his reading of a 2005 state law that allows cruise ships to offer gambling outside South Carolina's territorial waters. The cruise ships still are allowed to possess the machines once they return to South Carolina territory, he argued, and can't be considered contraband.

"As far as my client was concerned, he believed (the machines) were going to be put on a gambling boat."

Scoville also argued it was improper for a Cherokee County magistrate to be present at the scene of the raid, and for the same magistrate to later rule on the forfeiture of the machines.

An attorney for SLED argued the state's law was clear the machines are considered contraband that can't be returned.

"The bottom line is the machine is what it is," the attorney said.

Circuit Judge Mark Hayes said he would consider the arguments and rule at a later date.

The operator of the Blacksburg video poker operation allegedly believed it was legal because the machines were set up on a federal rail line.