Lancaster County man charged with running a video gambling operation in a storage unit

An out-of-the-way storage unit in Lancaster County provided a hangout for illegal video gamblers, according to state law enforcement agents who raided the place Wednesday.

Agents from the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division and the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Drug Task Force conducted a search of a storage facility on 1525 Holly Hill Road near Lancaster and discovered a gambling operation “upfitted like a sports bar,” according to a sheriff’s office press release.

John Thomas Whitaker, 37, faces charges of possession of gambling devices and keeping a gaming house after five illegal video gambling machines were taken out of the bar-like storage unit, the release states.

Agents allege an undercover operation found Whitaker was making payouts to those who played the games at the Holly Hill location, inside a row of storage units off a dirt road.

Whitaker was reportedly found at the scene as deputies arrived with a search warrant, along with the machines, $122 in cash, and a small quantity of marijuana on Whitaker’s person, leading to an additional possession charge.

“Payouts on these machines were outlawed years ago,” said Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile in a statement. “We continue to receive complaints about video poker and take those complaints seriously.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Lancaster County man charged with running a video gambling operation in a storage unit."