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Medina County father-son casino gaming convictions affirmed

TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter

Published: April 23, 2018

A Medina County trial court erred by ordering cash seized in an illegal gambling case when the evidence failed to establish the property was associated with the alleged operation of a casino gaming operation.

However, the 9th District Court of Appeals affirmed the gambling-related convictions of Adam Syed and his father, Azeem Syed.

Adam Syed owned and operated Cyber City and Cyber 777, two (now closed) gaming establishments.

According to court records, officers began going undercover as customers at the businesses after receiving tips about illegal gambling.

The undercover officers testified to putting cash directly into slot machines. If they won, they would raise their hand and an employee would pay them winnings in cash from the cash register or the gaming machine itself.

Search warrants were executed at Cyber City, Cyber 777, Adam’s home, Azeem’s business (A&A Vending Co. , Inc.) and a former motorcycle shop the family used as storage.

Officers testified that they searched A&A Vending to find evidence connecting Azeem to his son’s gaming business.

Seized items included gaming machines from the gaming businesses, motorcycle shop and A&A Vending, documents from A&A vending and cash from Adam’s rental car and inside the Syed family’s home.

After a bench trial, Adam was convicted of 12 counts of operating a casino gaming operation, eight counts of possessing criminal tools and 16 forfeiture specifications.

Azeem was found guilty of five counts of complicity to operate a casino gaming operation and 11 forfeiture specifications.

On appeal, Adam argued the state failed to establish the machines at his businesses were not slot machines but “finite sweepstakes machines” because they had been modified to remove the elements of chance and consideration.

Ninth District Judge Jennifer Hensal noted there was no dispute at trial that Adam did not have the proper licensing to operate slot machines at his gaming establishments, and that he knew he could not use them at Cyber City and Cyber 777 as purchased.

In addition, the manager of slot operations from the Ohio Casino Control Commission testified that after testing two of Adam’s machines from Cyber City, neither had been modified.

The appellate court also determined that the machines seized from A&A Vending and the motorcycle shop were lawfully seized.

The panel agreed with Adam though that the $3,920 in cash seized from a bag found in his rental car was from an entirely separate business.

“He argues that the ledgers that were found along with the cash demonstrate that it was from his gentlemen’s club in Portage County,” Judge Hensal stated. “The State argues that, since the cash was found in a car parked outside of the Syed family home, which is where the police found another bag of money that Adam admitted was related to his gaming establishments, competent, credible evidence existed to establish that the bag of cash from the car constituted proceeds of Adam’s gaming establishments.

“At the forfeiture hearing, the State did not present additional evidence and instead chose to rely on the evidence it presented at trial. That evidence included testimony from a detective involved in the execution of the search warrant at the Syed family home. He testified that the State’s Exhibit 53 depicted the cash found in the bag inside of Adam’s rental car, which was parked in the driveway. A review of Exhibit 53 supports Adam’s position; it shows cash along with documents referencing the gentlemen’s club.”

Appellate judges Julie Schafer and Thomas Teodosio concurred.

The case is cited State v. Syed, 2018-Ohio-1438.


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