FLORESVILLE, Texas – A man now facing multiple charges after a weekend raid centered around suspected illegal gambling said he had been on the job just hours before his arrest.
“It was my first day. Not even a day. Four hours,” said Joseph Greco, 61, who remained at the Wilson County Jail Monday.
Greco was arrested Saturday at the Lucky Spin game room in Floresville.
“Within four hours, the door opens up and all of the sudden these gentlemen come through with badges,” he said.
Greco took the job to make ends meet and says he thought it all was legal. In fact, he says he had been to the Lucky Spin before not as an employee, but as a player.
“When you see a building open up on a main drag and you see a license that's provided by the city, you assume that what you're in is a legal establishment,” Greco said.
But Wilson County investigators say it's not.
Lucky Spin was one of five 8-liner game rooms busted over the weekend because of suspected illegal gambling.
The game rooms were located along Highway 181 from Poth to north of Floresville.
Authorities seized roughly $84,000 in cash, four cars and hundreds of motherboards from the 8-liner machines.
Greco is the only one of the seven arrested Saturday who remains in jail.
He is being held on a $15,000 bond and is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, possession of a gambling device and gambling promotion.
"If when they opened up they had documentation stating what the rules were, if law enforcement had acted on this stuff 10 years ago when I first came to this city and saw game rooms here, then I wouldn't be here,” Greco said.
The Wilson County District Attorney’s Office says the investigation is still in its early stages.
If the investigation proves Greco’s claims to be true, the office could not say Monday how the charges against Greco could change, if at all.