Covina Business Busted For Illegal Online Gambling

Quick Connect, located on the 900 block of North Citrus Avenue, claims to sell computer and cell phone accessories as well as offer Internet access, but police say it was a location for online gambling.

Covina Police busted a local business allegedly involved in illegal online gambling Tuesday, the second bust of its kind in the last month.

The store manager of Quick Connect, 47-year-old Sheryl Duston of Hacienda Heights, was arrested on suspicion of possessing slot devices after investigators served a search warrant at the store.

Quick Connect, located on the 900 block of North Citrus Avenue, claims to sell computer and cell phone accessories as well as offer Internet access, but police say it was a location for online gambling.

Police seized 36 computers Tuesday.

According to police, a customer pays at the front desk and is issued a pin number and points. Twenty dollars gets a customer 2000 points. The customer then enters the pin number in the computer and is later able to redeem the points for cash after they are done playing.

This was the second Covina business busted as part of an undercover investigation into illegal Internet gambling in the city.

Tel-Expo on the 600 block of North Azusa Avenue posed as an Internet café that also sold phone accessories and phone cards, according to police. Customers at Tel-Expo could purchase so-called phone cards that came with a pin number that would then be entered in the computer to play slot machine and poker-type games, police said.

The owner of Tel-Expo, 21-year-old Henry Hakopian, was arrested on July 17 and 37 computers were confiscated from the business.

Ryan Bourgard contributed to this report.

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