OPINION|
Shaun Sletten could not think of a worse place for a “no-chance gaming” business than next to the methadone clinic where he works as program manager.
“They are making customers out of our patients,” he tells me. “I would like to see them shut down — today if possible.”
Springfield City Council members are considering a bill that would prohibit the operation of entertainment devices that offer monetary prizes. The council discussed the matter Jan. 22.
The machines commonly are called video lottery terminals or gray machines. They resemble gambling but in the eyes of many are, in fact, gambling. A player knows before playing whether they will win or lose, hoping that before the very next play they will know they are going to win.
Sletten works at Behavioral Health Group, a medication treatment center at 2551 W. Kearney Street. It provides methadone, a controlled substance, to those trying to end an addiction to opiates.
For several months, the treatment center's neighbor on the other side of the wall has been the Spin City Internet Cafe. Information on the Spin City door says hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 8 a.m. It was closed when I visited at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Two other businesses are in the strip center.
They're not coming at 2 a.m. to play Pac-Man
Maggie Wescoat, the dosing nurse at the methadone clinic says she sees cars outside Spin City at 4:30 a.m.
One time she was sitting in the dark in the parking lot — waiting for a second employee to arrive in order to open the center — and the only cars in the lot were at Spin City. A man walked over to her car and tried to open it, she says, so she yelled at him, which did not deter him. She showed him something that did deter him.
Wescoat routinely cleans up trash and syringes from the parking lot, she says, and believes drugs are used and sold in the parking lot. From what she has seen, she suspects prostitution is also happening.
Sletten tells me the walls are thin between the businesses, and he has heard the sounds of people having sex in Spin City.
“People are not hanging around that establishment at 2 a.m. to play Pac-Man,” he says.
Wescoat also has seen fights.
“I have had people come out to my car and get in the car with me,” she says.
Sletten has registered his complaints face-to-face several times with the person who appeared to be the manager of Spin City, he says. Most often, it's to ask him to turn down the music.
A new problem: dumpster-divers licking cups that held methadone
One problem that has popped up since Spin City opened, Sletten adds, is that people have been dumpster-diving behind the clinic to lick the empty cups used to provide methadone to patients. Methadone is given in a liquid form.
Those who come for treatment are a “vulnerable population,” Sletten says. He feels the they are being preyed on by Spin City.
“They don't want to continue living that life, but they don't know how to get out of it either,” he says. “They can be swayed.”
Pamela Fisher has worked at the methadone clinic for five years. The business space next door was vacant all that time, until Spin City moved in months ago.
Owner says if money is involved in the gaming she will evict the business
The building was purchased by Golden Hills Center, LLC, from HMR Properties Inc., on March 16, 2022.
The owner is Kerrie Le, who is an agent at ReeceNichols, a Springfield real estate agency.
I called her.
Why did you lease to a business where money can be made playing video games —similar to gambling — knowing it would be next to a methadone clinic?
“According to what I was told, they were going to play video games inside,” she says.
You didn't know people could win money? As if they were gambling?
No, she did not, she tells me.
“If that is the case,” she says, “they will be evicted. Because that's not what I was told was supposed to be in there.”
Unsheltered people have congregated at center long before Spin City opened
Le also said that unsheltered people have congregated near the building and behind the building for many years — long before Spin City opened. At one point, some unsheltered persons set up tents behind the building.
“The issue has been an ongoing thing. It's not anything that's new,” she says.
As far as drug use, fighting, drug sales and perhaps prostitution — she tells me I'm the first person to report that to her. Her tenants did not, she says.
“Why did they not call me to tell me that they believe this was going on there?”
One 13-year tenant recently left. The Operating Engineers Local 101 moved to a new location in Springfield.
Melissa Anderson is the union's administrative assistant. The office was relocated because of problems caused by Spin City, she says.
“I no longer felt safe there,” Anderson says. “Because of the type of people that the gaming facility brought in. There were a lot of drugs being used. I just saw a lot.
“There had been homeless issues, but they never really bothered me. But since that gaming place moved in, it's just there. Everybody's on something over there. And it's kind of scary.”
She remembers driving by at 3 a.m. and the parking lot was packed. She also recalls seeing a man in the parking lot who in the morning was helping someone with her car; around noon appeared to be comatose; and by afternoon was passed out cold in the driveway.
‘They're rude. They cuss ya. The sleep out in the parking lot.'
Marsha McAfee has managed Sun-West Storage for 16 years. The company has units to the adjacent north of the methadone clinic and Spin City.
She tells me problems have increased since Spin City opened.
“They're rude. They cuss ya. They sleep out in the parking lot,” she said of the patrons.
Both of her storage units have been broken into and items were stolen since Spin City opened, she says.
“No, we didn't have that problem before. Every storage facility in town will have their fence cut at one time or another and have a break in. But since that gambling place opened — you keep calling it a ‘café.' It is a gambling casino, and it needs to be closed down.”
According to business-license records, there are two Spin City Internet Cafes in Springfield. The other one is at 4161 S. Scenic Ave.
The owner of both is listed as Jay Madi, LLC, a company in or near Atlanta, Georgia.
I called the number, but was unable to leave a message.
This is Pokin Around column No. 160.
