Eight arrested as illegal casino is shut down by police in Pennsylvania

Eight people were arrested last month in Pennsylvania after an illegal casino was found by police officers, authorities have stated in a social media post.

On January 28, officers from Lancaster Station’s Community Appreciation Team managed to target an illegal casino operation that was located in the west 300 block of Avenue J-2 after securing a search warrant.

As a result, eight people were arrested, five illegal gambling machines were seized, four felony arrests that included two with outstanding robbery warrants and a further four misdemeanour arrests relating to illegal gambling activity.

Dubbed as “tap-taps”, these illegal operations are often located behind fictitious storefronts which don’t have a business license.

As such, they often become focal points for drug use, shootings and other criminal activity, creating havoc in surrounding neighbourhoods.

 Despite this illegal operation being seized, crime actually decreased in 2025.

Homicide rates have decreased in Lancaster County over the previous 12 months

According to county commissioner Josh Parsons, the rate of crime decreased throughout 2025 in the area.

Murders went to record lows in 2025. Here in Lancaster County we went from 10-20 a year to 4 criminal homicides last year. Other public safety stats look great as well. Lots goes into this, but an important part is enforcing federal law again. https://t.co/REz9SKjrEE

— Josh Parsons (@Josh__Parsons) January 9, 2026

“Well, that’s the number one job of government is public safety,” Parsons said. “We take it very seriously.”

Indeed, a total of just four criminal homicides were reported in 2025 and this was well below the national average per capita, which is between 25 and 70 for counties of populations between 500,000 and 1 million.

“The police all across the county work hard on violent crime. I think that’s paying off, I think immigration enforcement at the federal level also matters, I think that makes a difference. So I think it’s a number of different things are coming together,” added the commissioner.

“I would attribute a lot of our success in, the lowering of those statistics to be our community partnerships,”

The strength of these community partnerships was evident during the recent raid at Avenue J-2, which resulted in a successful operation in the end.

Featured image: Lancaster Sheriff’s Station via Facebook

The post Eight arrested as illegal casino is shut down by police in Pennsylvania appeared first on ReadWrite.