Indian River County Sheriff's Office seeks to keep $23,000 seized in November arcade raid

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Sheriff’s officials are using state contraband laws to legally claim $23,000 seized during a November raid of the Moonlight Express arcade, in Roseland, when deputies and state agents removed gaming equipment and shuttered the business, records show.

Two employees were arrested during the Nov. 29 raid and 60 electronic devices associated with the gaming activity were seized in what Sheriff Eric Flowers described as part of a push to stop illegal gambling at the county’s adult arcades.

“We had quite a few arcades operating here in Indian River County.  We put them on notice that we were potentially going to be charging them for their criminal activity, and the vast majority of them shut down,” Flowers said Thursday. “Unfortunately, there were a few that didn't heed our warning, and … they chose to ignore the opportunity that we had offered them to walk away.”

He said they continue to investigate arcades, working with agents from the Florida Gamming Control Commission.

Moonlight Express, the only arcade in the county raided by deputies and state gaming officials so far, had been warned in October with about two dozen other arcades to stop all gaming involving cash transactions, court records show. The business closed for three weeks after the warning then reopened, Flowers said in November.

The business operated in a busy strip mall that shared space with a Publix at 13429 U.S. 1.

The arcade’s owner, Tracy Nocerino, who also is known as Tracy Lee Bridges, 56, was outside the business during the Nov. 29 raid but she was not immediately arrested.

As deputies removed gaming machines during the raid, Bridges said the arcade had been operating for 15 years and after they were warned in October, all their cash gaming machines were removed.

She described the arcade as “a big social club” with roughly 10 to 15 “mostly all elderly” players at a time, some of which she said had been playing its games since the arcade opened.

Court records show Bridges, of the 600 block of Brookedge Terrace, Sebastian, was charged Dec. 28 with 31 misdemeanor offenses, including one count of keeping a gambling house, and 30 counts of the manufacture, sale or possession of prohibited slot machines or devices.

Currently free in lieu of $15,500 bond, Bridges files papers Monday pleading not guilty to the offenses.

Her Fort Lauderdale attorney, Michael Wolf, declined to discuss the charges when reached for comment.

Forfeiture process

Shortly after deputies seized $23,000 in cash found during the arcade raid inside a register, a safe and ATM machine, the Sheriff’s Office filed court papers seeking to keep the money under the state’s Contraband Forfeiture Act.

During a hearing Tuesday, Indian River County Circuit Judge Cynthia Cox ruled that sheriff’s officials had developed probable cause in seeking a search warrant to conduct the raid to investigate illegal gambling.

Cox ruled the money will remain with the Sheriff’s Office as the forfeiture litigation proceeds.

If sheriff’s officials are allowed to keep the cash as proceeds of illegal activity, Flowers said the money will be placed into a law enforcement trust fund tapped to pay for various nonprofit programs, including to assist victims of domestic violence and to purchase equipment such as shields, helmets and bulletproof vests.

Arcade regulation push

Flowers called the county’s arcades “prime generators” of illegal activity.

“Even if a casino or an arcade is operating legally, it's still going to become a crime generator, just because of the nature of the business,” Flowers said. “So it's a problem for us.”

In December, he asked Indian River County commissioners to pass regulations making it difficult for arcades to operate in the county.

Deputies have responded to arcades 682 times since he became sheriff in November 2020, Flowers told commissioners. Those calls have included robberies, thefts, burglaries, drug overdoses and disturbances.

He told commissioners his agency will draft a proposed arcade law for consideration by the commission.

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Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at  melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: IRCSO seeks to keep $23,000 in cash seized in November arcade raid