There’s another batch of Tenderloin corner stores in the city’s crosshairs for running illegal gambling dens, and some are also accused of selling meth and weed right over the counter.
It’s getting to be a fairly common occurrence that SF City Attorney David Chiu prosecutes suspected illegal gambling dens in the Tenderloin, operating out of what appear to be normal corner liquor stores. This is generally because police find the location is home to telltale unauthorized gambling video games. But the Chronicle reports that Chiu’s latest lawsuits against four Tenderloin corner stores found that one of the stores was going well beyond illegal gambling.
At a store called Family Corner Discounts at Ellis and Jones streets, Chiu’s office announced Friday that "SFPD executed a search warrant and seized six electronic gambling machines, $4,456 of cash, a payment ledger, foreign tobacco products, merchandise on display for sale with CVS price stickers, and 50.8 grams of methamphetamine located under a display shelf.”
Just a few doors down from there, an SFPD search at a store called US Smoke Shop turned up five illegal gambling machines, a couple gun magazines, plus “loose leaf cannabis, pre-rolled cannabis joints, cannabis vape cartridges, and illegal flavored tobacco products.” And one sure has to wonder about the above November 2023 Instagram post from US Smoke Shop promoting “mushroom cereal bars” on the shelves.
“It is clear these stores are magnets for substantial illegal activity,” Chiu said in his announcement. “Drug dealing, gambling, fencing, selling contraband and illegal tobacco products—these stores are the Wild West. One store went as far as to store meth for sale under a display shelf.”
Chiu’s lawsuits also target EZ Dollar Discount Store at 335 Jones Street, and Ed’s Market at 153 Turk Street. At EZ Dollar Discount Store, the City Attorney’s office says that police observed “stolen merchandise on display for sale with Walgreens, CVS, Safeway, Big 5, Trader Joe’s, Target, and Harbor Freight branding” on their price tags.
These are lawsuits against the four stores, and not yet criminal charges. But Chiu’s office is asking the courts to shut down the stores for one year, and force each to pay a fine of $25,000.
Related: SFPD Busts Yet Another Underground Tenderloin Gambling Den and ‘Drug House,’ Four Arrested [SFist]
Image: Google Street View
