Police Officials Suspect Local Arcade Hall of Digital Currency Mining and Gambling

Even though digital currency and gambling seem to be a perfect match for each other, government officials are very wary of this relationship. Case in point is the police raid on a Southern California business last month, allegedly involved with gambling and an unknown digital currency. Care to find out more?

Shamrock Social Games & Mining

The business in question is called Shamrock Social Games & Mining, located in Bakersfield, California, and now a rather famous name in the state due to their offices being raided by police last month. Even though the business is known to be housing various arcade gaming opportunities, police officials had reason to believe gambling activity was going on at the location.

Most of the allegations, however, appear to be based on some misconceptions. Shamrock Social Games & Mining has developed a new piece of software – or game, if you prefer – in which players have to “mine” digital currency. In doing so, and by playing the other games offered by the company owners, users can earn ShamrockCoin.

In turn, these ShamrockCoins can be used to play games played at any of the arcade machines located on the premises, after converting it to social digital currency. While this may sound like a casino-style game to police officials, it sounds more like a “gaming cashback” system to others.

However, according to an eyewitness statement, the operations works slightly different. Every time you “gamble” at their location, they will give you a receipt. After doing so, you have to walk down the street, where it would be exchanged. Police reports indicate this “place down the street” could very well be a secondary office, belonging to Shamrock Social Games & Mining.

If the information is to be believed, customers would take their “gambling receipt” – in ShamrockCoin – to this secondary office, where someone at the reception would exchange the amount to fiat currency, minus 10%. Needless to say, none of this story seems to make any sense, as there is a lot of conflicting information being provided.

Attorney Responds

“I think there’s confusion by the police. You have to understand the arcade games are not like slot machines, as the police suspect. With computer games, a player can see what the prize will be before every level of play, which is not illegal by any means. There is no element of chance, which contradicts the entire “gambling” aspect of this story.” Shamrock attorney Peter Beckman told the local media.

That being said, neighbors are voicing other concerns regarding this arcade hall.  Even though Shamrock Social Games & Mining only opened its doors earlier this year, there have been several incidents involving local police already.  Reports range from bikes being stolen to drug dealing and arcade players taking up all parking spots in the area.

“When detectives served the search warrant today, there were several meth pipes that hit the floor, people trying to get rid of their stuff.  That’s the type of clientele that is being attracted to this type of center.  We’ll have to get some legal definitions from the courts on where this goes and the next step with these, the legality or illegality of these types of centers, and then we’ll move forward from there.” Sgt. Joe Grubbs concluded.

Source: Bakersfield Now

Images courtesy of Shamrock Social Games & Mining and Shutterstock