Jacksonville City Council and mayoral candidates speak on recent Emerson Street incident

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Action News Jax is learning more about an incident that happened two nights ago at Smoking Aces on Emerson Street.

According to JSO, they responded to an armed robbery call, but discovered an illegal gambling operation taking place inside.

Action News Jax has documented several incidents at this strip mall since 2019. Now, two candidates running for city council in this district say they have a zero tolerance for illegal gambling.

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“It’s not tolerated at all,” says Joe Carlucci

“Not in favor of illegal gambling at all,” says Morgan Roberts.

Carlucci and Roberts are both running for a District 5 seat on Jacksonville’s City Council.

Two nights ago, Action News Jax s reported a massive police presence at a shopping plaza on Emerson Street.

During the investigation, officers discovered illegal gaming machines and computer monitors inside, something both Carlucci and Roberts don’t want in District 5.

“What we need is regulations for businesses because when they are unregulated they are unlicensed to do these things,” says Carlucci.

“I think we need leaders who are willing to work with our local and state law enforcement,” says Roberts.

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A couple of doors down from where this incident happened is Wacko’s Gentlemen’s club, where several incidents have also been documented in the past.

In 2019, Action News Jax told you about a JSO investigation into human trafficking and prostitution that led to a raid resulting in several arrests.

And in 2017, another JSO investigation led to two women being arrested for prostitution and drug charges.

Both candidates say the area has to be cleaned up.

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“It’s illegal, there is no place for it here in Jacksonville,” says Roberts

“We just have to get our police officers over there and get these places shutdown, and make sure that they can’t pop up at another spot,” says Carlucci.

Current District 5 Councilwoman and Jacksonville Mayoral Candidate Leanna Cumber says she helped put together legislation in 2019 to stop illegal gambling

“It’s what I shutdown when I first got on council. It shut down all internet gaming facilities throughout the city, deemed them a public nuisance so you can’t have them legally,” says Cumber.

Cumber says although these gaming machines are illegal in Jacksonville, more has to be done.

“We need to work with the sheriff’s office, we need to work with code enforcement and really make sure that business know that these are illegal machines, illegal gambling and they will be shut down when they crop up,” says Cumber.

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