South Carolina Ex-Coroner Says Cops Broke Law by Busting His Poker Game

• Watts claims Irmo raid exaggerated and lacked probable cause.
• Lawsuit says seized poker funds covered food, not profit.
• South Carolina gambling law precedent challenges Watts’s legal stance.

A former coroner for Richland County, S.C. arrested last year during a raid on what authorities called an underground poker game, says police and state agents broke the law and violated his rights when they busted up a friendly social gathering.

Gary Miller Watts, who was county coroner for 20 years until 2020, is suing the his local police department and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The complaint accuses officers of false arrest, malicious prosecution, and trespassing, according to WIS News 10.

Watts was arrested in the April 2024 raid on a rented office space in the town of Irmo along with 10 others, including his son, Adam. Officers seized more than $15,000 in cash, claiming the game amounted to an illegal gambling operation because organizers were taking a rake. The charges against Watts were later dropped.

‘Heavy-Handed’ Raid

Watts’ complaint describes the SWAT-like team that smashed in the glass doors to the suite while brandishing assault rifles as “a crack team of gumshoes.”

Watts argues that the money seized was used only to cover food and drinks rather than enrich anyone hosting the game.

He also contends law enforcement exaggerated the circumstances to justify a show of force and that they lacked probable cause to raid the game.

He adds that an undercover SLED agent who infiltrated the game gambled and lost using taxpayers’ money.

Hard Line on Gambling

South Carolina’s gambling laws are antiquated and unusually strict. The playing of “any game with cards or dice” is outlawed in a wide range of places, including “any house used as a place of gaming.”

Watts contends there is nothing in the statute that expressly mentions “poker” or “office spaces.”

The suit is seeking both actual and consequential damages, citing lost wages and other harms from the raid and legal fallout.

But any effort to frame the poker night as lawful faces an uphill battle in South Carolina. In 2012, the state Supreme Court upheld convictions of private poker players even though no rake was taken. The court ruled that any card game that involved betting could constitute gambling under the statute.