Elks Pay Up, Shut Book On Gaming Raid Agents Swarmed Shoshone County Bars In ‘91
The federal government Tuesday settled its last case from Shoshone County’s 1991 gambling raid for less than the cost of a good video poker machine.
Six years after gun-toting FBI agents seized 200 gambling machines from 25 Shoshone County bars, the Wallace Elks Club has agreed to pay $3,375 to settle charges it once housed illegal gaming activities.
That’s the amount of profit U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson said the Elks club made as a result of lawbreaking. The money is to be paid to the Wallace Youth Association and the Shoshone County Food Bank.
A new video poker machine costs about $6,000.
“We’re just glad it’s finally over,” said Steve Brown, a one-time exalted ruler of the Wallace Elks Club. “Now we can get on with real Elks business.”
During the June 23, 1991, raid, more than 150 agents smashed down doors and swarmed about 50 establishments. Agents took four World War II-vintage slot machines from the Elks that had been padlocked in the basement.
The government eventually filed liens against the lodge and bars, most of which settled the charges by paying fines as punishment.
The case led to the indictment of former Shoshone County Sheriff Frank Crnkovich on racketeering and obstruction of justice charges, and allegations that he ignored years of illegal gambling and prostitution.
His first trial ended in a hung jury and Crnkovich was acquitted in a second trial in 1993.
The lodge, and a handful of others, refused to settle. In 1993, federal agents returned the Elks’ machines after attorney John Magnuson argued they were antiques.
The feds kept the $119.80 in change that was inside.
Last fall, the U.S. Attorney’s Office demanded the 500-member lodge give up its building to satisfy the unresolved charges. The government also threatened to revoke the lodge’s liquor license.
Magnuson has said that he suspects the government reopened the case last year because the statute of limitations was set to expire.
Tuesday’s settlement ends a bitter period in Shoshone County history, one which left residents feeling hostile toward the FBI. Many never got over that feeling.
“The whole thing was a waste of time and money,” Brown said Tuesday.
Today, the lodge’s antique slots are back in storage, padlocked and out of sight. Elks members can’t say where the machines will end up in the future.
“We might bring them out for show sometime, but I don’t know why,” Brown said. “If you can’t play ‘em, why display ‘em?”
, DataTimes