TAYLORSVILLE — Unified police cited several people for illegal gambling at a Taylorsville business called Digital Toyz.

Investigators with the Unified Police Department say they began a two-month investigation into Digital Toyz after receiving multiple gambling and drug-related complaints. They also arrested four people accused of other criminal activity Wednesday.

Located at 2588 W. 4700 South, Digital Toyz advertises itself as a digital electronics sales, service and repair shop. Investigators say customers rented computer time to play games of chance. If a customer won while playing the games, they were paid in cash by a store clerk, the police press release said.

Nine people were arrested just after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Five of those arrested were cited for investigation of gambling and were released. They will receive a summons at some point to show up in Salt Lake Justice Court to face charges, said Unified police detective Ken Hansen. Most gambling charges are class B misdemeanors.

Fausto Mejia, 23, of Salt Lake City, who was the clerk working at the time when police arrived, was cited and released for investigation of gambling nuisance.

Two of the nine were booked into jail for investigation of drug-related crimes while two others were arrested on warrants.

Several of the nine arrested have prior criminal records and convictions, mainly for drug-related crimes such as forgery, shoplifting, burglary and drug possession, according to court records. Some also have active court cases.

KSL Investigators go undercover

Tucked away in the corner of a Taylorsville strip mall, KSL cameras captured a number of people coming and going through the doors of Digital Toyz late into the evening.

The Unified police investigation ran independently of KSL's hidden camera investigation. Tipped off by a viewer, KSL Investigators wanted to find out more about potential cash payouts and rumored casino-style game play.

"The games are of course straight up gambling," wrote the tipster. "Is this sort of business actually legal in Utah? It certainly shouldn't be if it is. It's unregulated gambling. It shouldn't be legal anywhere, especially in Utah."

'I paid out two grand in an hour'

Walking in, a woman behind a cash register said, "I paid out two grand in an hour."

With undercover video and audio, KSL Investigators chronicled their trips to Digital Toyz.

A female at the front of the line was handed a small stack of small dollar bills. "I put in $5," she said. "I got all the way up to $40, then dropped down to $25. I'm like, 'I gotta go.' And it only took me two hours of my life to do it."

The employee asked the next in line, "You want to redeem your winnings?"

Jackpot $4,894

Seeing Digital Toyz customers leave with hard currency, a KSL producer asked, "Can I ever cash out?"

"What do you mean cash out?" the employee replied. "We don't gamble here. Gambling is illegal."

A screen in the store read, "Jackpot $4,894."

'A couple thousand'

KSL Investigator Debbie Dujanovic stopped by the store one night to ask about cellphone repair and accessories. The conversation soon turned to the store's back-room computer play.

KSL's undercover cameras captured hours of gaming machines with names like American Payday, Drilling for Dollars and Smash and Cash.

"They're playing our sweepstakes," the man behind the counter said.

"What is a sweepstakes?" Dujanovic asked.

"You see that guy? I was giving him cash because he played our sweepstakes," the employee said.

"How much can you win?" Dujanovic asked.

"A couple thousand," the employee said.

'I'm just itching to go'

Playing the sweepstakes games had at least one Digital Toyz customer planning out her next trip to Nevada.

"Playing here, it'll make you want to go to Wendover," she said. "I'm just itching to go. I'm just dying, dying to go."

What's a sweepstakes?

On another day, KSL Investigators returned with a TV news camera and spoke to the store manager.

While the computer games have the look and feel of casino slots, store manager Gene Poole said Digital Toyz patrons were playing sweepstakes games, not gambling.

"No, absolutely not," Poole said when asked by KSL's Debbie Dujanovic if there was gambling going on in the store. "It's sweepstakes. They are predetermined wins for the prizes. There's no chance involved in it.

"It's no different than the sweepstakes they do at McDonald's or any of the sweepstakes out there," Poole said. "(Our customers) get free sweepstakes entries with the purchase of our products."

Former prosecutor weighs in

Defense attorney and former prosecutor Greg Skordas said for sweepstakes to be legal in Utah, store clerks have to make it very clear, up front, that no purchase is necessary to play.

"If you walk in and say I want to play and I'm not going to pay you money, to avoid Utah's gambling laws they have to let you sit down at the table and let you play," Skordas said. "And win — and walk out with cash."

According to Skordas, getting these free plays in a sweepstakes has to be an easy process. Skordas said sending a letter out-of-state to request free plays probably doesn't meet that threshold, although Pool suggested we could.

"If you want to go in and send a self-addressed envelope to the sign in there you will get 500 free sweepstakes sent to you," Poole said. "It's totally inside the law for Utah."

What does the Digital Toyz business license say?

KSL Investigators pulled the business license application Digital Toyz filed with the city of Taylorsville. The application doesn't mention the word sweepstakes.

When KSL Investigators pointed this out to Poole, he responded that he didn't think the business needed to.

Taylorsville community director: 'Something out of the ordinary is happening there'

KSL shared some its video findings with Mark McGrath, Taylorsville's community development director. Between the video he saw and the work of Unified police detectives, McGrath told KSL Investigators the city began the process to revoke the store's business license.

"Clearly from watching the video something out of the ordinary is happening there," McGrath said.

Contributing: Debbie Dujanovic, Pat Reavy

Torin Koos is an associate producer at KSL-TV who tries to write, film, and interview compelling people for stories that resonate with readers. Koos from the former logging and mill town of Leavenworth, Washington, in the Cascades, and he came to Utah to attend the University of Utah and ski for the Utes. This led to years trotting the globe and chasing Olympic dreams as part of USA Olympic team at the Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver and Sochi Games. Email Torin Koos at tkoos@ksl.com.

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