Hawaii officials pursue stronger deterrents for illegal game rooms

A shootout earlier this month at a clandestine gambling den is a deadly example of the dangers that many say can be found in nearly every neighborhood on Oahu, and authorities now have begun filing civil actions in court against property owners to shut down the operations.

According to the Honolulu Police Department, narcotics vice officers shut down 50 illegal game rooms in 2021 and seized 713 gaming machines. As of Thursday, police this year had shuttered 10 illegal game rooms and seized 144 gaming machines.

Firearms are frequently recovered during searches by police, and small amounts of illegal narcotics are also occasionally found, according to HPD.

“There are illegal game rooms all over the island, and HPD is tireless in trying to investigate them and hold people accountable,” Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program last week.

“If you’re in a game room, you could be in a crossfire even if you had nothing to do with it,” Alm said.

The shootout at an illegal Ewa Beach game room that killed one man and wounded another on April 5 was the result of a botched robbery, and the 23-year-old who fired the fatal shots was not charged because he acted in self-defense, according to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

Patrol officers responded to a 1:47 a.m. call of shots being fired on the 9100 block of Hanakahi Street. Upon arrival they found two men and a woman with gunshot wounds.

Police arrested Jason K. Tili on April 8 on charges of murder, attempted murder and related offenses for allegedly shooting and killing 33-year-old Clifford Adkins of Waianae. Also shot and injured in the shootout were Quinton Quemado Andrzejewski, 25; and a woman, 64.

Alm said Tili was a “security officer” who had a gun when Adkins and Andrzejewski walked in with guns and tried to rob the place. Prosecutors determined Tili acted in self-defense after reviewing evidence in the case and declined to charge him with a crime. Andrzejewski was charged with one count of first-degree robbery.

“It’s a dangerous situation. One is dead, and another is being charged with robbery,” said Alm.

With the proliferation of such gambling operations, Honolulu police and city prosecutors want to begin pursuing criminal and civil legal actions to help shut them down.

“Illegal gambling establishments are quick, easy and relatively inexpensive to set up, yet they are very profitable,” said HPD Maj. Phillip Johnson, head of the department’s Narcotics Vice Division. “Taking away gambling locations through nuisance abatement will send a strong message to property owners, letting them know that it’s not profitable to rent to individuals promoting illegal activity.”

For the first time in almost 40 years, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney filed a civil nuisance abatement complaint against the property owners of an alleged illegal gambling den in McCully.

On Aug. 23, prosecutors filed the complaint against the owner of 845 McCully St., Wai Tung “Ave” Kwock; Kwock’s holding company, K.C. Management LLC; and Tom Van Tran, a worker who was arrested and charged with possession of a gambling device and promoting gambling on June 29.

Prosecutors asked the court to “permanently prohibit” Tran from entering the building and execute “the effectual closing of the building, premises, or place, against its use for any purpose, and that it be kept closed for a period not exceeding one year,” according to the complaint.

“A building owner would hate that prospect,” said Alm.

The department intends to use this “test case” to determine whether civil nuisance abatement actions can be an effective tool in shutting down illegal gambling rooms, according to Matthew Dvonch, special counsel to the prosecuting attorney.

“If it proves to be effective, we anticipate filing more cases,” he said.

Kwock and Tran’s attorney, Keith M. Kiuchi, told the Star-Advertiser that Tran and the person who operated the alleged illegal gambling business vacated Kwock’s building shortly after the lawsuit was filed.

“They were out of there within a month of that,” said Kiuchi. “The prosecutors’ office has done nothing on the case since October 13.”

As part of the police investigation into gambling at 845 McCully St., an undercover HPD vice officer entered the game room on three occasions and played the “Fish Hunter” gaming machine, according to court documents, the gambling device Tran was charged with possessing.

Kiuchi wrote in court documents that the digital “Fish Hunter” game that the landlord had allowed on the premises could be considered not a game of chance and therefore legal. He also claimed that an HPD officer involved in the case agreed with that assessment. The landlord, Kiuchi wrote, would not permit another popular game, “Pot of Gold,” because it is considered a game of chance.

Kiuchi further argued that police reports used to get a search warrant contained no discussions of the legality or illegality of the “Fish Hunter” game, which he said made it invalid. The undercover activity happened after the warrant was issued, Kiuchi wrote.

On March 8, Judge Timothy Ho dismissed the cri­m­inal charges, without prejudice, against Tran after his attorneys cited a December Hawaii Supreme Court opinion that criminal complaints have to be signed by the complaining party.

Alm has said his office intends to refile nearly all of the cases dismissed without prejudice due to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

He highlighted a proposal before state lawmakers that would elevate misdemeanor gambling offenses associated with game room activity to felonies.

Alm said he believes that would dissuade people from working as cashiers, security and other jobs in game rooms. Right now the most they face are misdemeanor gambling charges.

The current version of House Bill 2197 would amend “the offenses of promoting gambling in the first and second degree to a class B felony and class C felony, respectively; the requisite state of mind for promoting gambling in the first and second degree to recklessness and negligence, respectively; and the definition of ‘advance gambling activity’ to no longer include simple gambling.”

Alm’s office submitted testimony March 30 supporting the current version of the measure but suggesting that the penalty for promoting gambling be (criminal) negligence, as in the original version of the bill.

“The Department strongly agrees that illegal gambling poses a serious risk to public safety and welfare, and is particularly concerned about establishments that chronically house illegal gambling activity,” Alm wrote in testimony to state Sen. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. “Lowering the state of mind to negligence could potentially lead to convicting higher-level participants associated with these types of enterprises. At the same time, truly innocent property owners — such as an elderly person who is currently in a nursing home, ignorant of the fact that their adult children are using their property as an illegal gambling establishment — could not be prosecuted under these laws, because that would not rise to the level of negligence.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii opposes the measure, describing it in testimony March 30 as “a draconian step backwards.”

“There are already laws criminalizing the conduct targeted by this bill, and there is no proof cited that increasing the promotion of gambling to a Class B and Class C felony and enhanced penalties will have a deterrent effect,” wrote Carrie Ann Shirota, policy director for the ACLU of Hawaii. “This bill is ill-conceived because it would exclude the offenses of promoting gambling in the first and second degree from qualifying for a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea or nolo contendere plea.”

The measure passed third reading in the House and Senate, and negotiations are ongoing with the House over some of the Senate’s amendments.