Retrospect: Sheriff destroyed gambling machines

Fifty years ago this week, Jay County Sheriff George Stultz and deputy George Scott destroyed gambling machines that had been confiscated the previous July from Redkey American Legion Post.

Stultz and Scott took the eight “one-armed bandits” and the guts of another machine to the Portland city dump and proceeded to destroy them. A small crowd gathered to watch and helped the police officers gather the $3.60 that emerged from the machines as they were broken apart by sledge hammers. (The money was donated to Portland Jaycees in support of their Kids Day event.)

“I knew they wasn’t much money in them,” said Stultz. “They took most of it out before they gave them to me to store in the jail.”

The bystanders also helped themselves to the scrap metal from the machines, which were estimated to weigh about 150 pounds apiece.

The machines had been confiscated after an Alcoholic Beverage Commission excise agent found them in the basement of the American Legion post on July 6, 1967. As a result, post commander Gene Dorman and bartender James Brosher received suspensions.

No charges were filed against the American Legion post.

The Commercial Review reported that similar gambling machines had been confiscated from the American Legion post in Portland in 1960.