Santa Ana police seize illegal slot machines

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Santa Ana police confiscated several illegal electronic slot machines during a raid at several small mom-and-pop stores Tuesday. Detectives found cash from people who gambled and lost inside the machines.

"These type of gambling machines are out in the open, a lot of the business owners believe that they are legal, so they don't believe there is a reason for them to be concealed," Luis Barragan of the Santa Ana Police Department said.

The machines, which look like old video arcade games, are illegal in the state of California. Police say they've received several complaints from the community about the illegal slot machines. Many people complained that children were wasting their money.

Officials say these machines come from Los Angeles County, but that it's hard to track them down.

"When we do confiscate the machines, no one seems to know where these people are specifically from, their name, that type of information, only the fact that they come out monthly and remove the financial winnings from the machine," Barragan said.

The owners receive about $50 to $200 a month to keep the machines in their stores, according to police.

A Santa Ana store manager, who goes by the name "Memo", says he didn't know the machines were illegal until police informed him.

"I said, 'OK take them, that's fine,'" Memo said.

Several people reported seeing these illegal slot machines in several different stores.

The investigation is ongoing. Santa Ana police plan to continue confiscating illegal slot machines.