Walk through the Tenderloin and you’ll see them often: Flashy, colorful slot machines in corner stores next to racks of chips and candy bars, a row of people hunched over them. Or at least, you’ll hear the fevered clicking emanating from the back of the neighborhood shops as players hope to win big.
Now, the city’s cracking down.
Over just the past year, nearly one in five Tenderloin mini-marts and smoke shops have been searched and raided for hosting illegal gambling machines, according to records from the San Francisco Police Department.
In addition to slot machines and other gaming devices seized by police, many of the searches have turned up firearms and other weapons, allegedly stolen merchandise and, in some cases, drugs.
“We know that some of these stores are very problematic for the neighborhood, for the Tenderloin,” acting Captain Kevin Knoble said at a community meeting this month. “Some of these stores … they’re taking advantage of the at-risk community.”
Thirteen people have been arrested across eight stores since June 2024. Four of those stores were named in a lawsuit filed by the City Attorney’s Office in April and, in October, the city attorney filed two lawsuits against two other Tenderloin corner stores for hosting “substantial illegal gambling operations.”
In all of those cases, City Attorney David Chiu sought to shut down the businesses’ operations for a year but, so far, only two stores have shuttered. None of these cases has gone to trial, and all of those arrested have been released.
Just two people arrested for gambling operations — at SF Discount Market, which was searched three times in 2024 — have pending criminal cases. The District Attorney’s Office has not confirmed whether the other 11 people arrested faced any criminal charges.
For their part, the businesses continue to proliferate in a neighborhood with no shortage of smoke shops, liquor stores and bodegas.
Eight Tenderloin stores have been raided within the past year for gambling operations
While police have observed open gambling at some stores, others keep machines better hidden, like one Ellis Street shop that neighbors say keeps its gambling machines behind a wall. The front of the store advertises “groceries,” but only minimal snack food is available inside.
Enter the barren store and one sees empty fridges and sparsely filled shelves. Frenetic clicking, apparently from gambling machines, can be heard from the back of the store where customers come and go from behind a wall. When this reporter entered the store, a clerk turned on loud music.
On a recent afternoon, a woman appeared from behind the wall and asked the clerk if he sold cigarettes. He did not, so she called back to someone out of sight — still clicking — to watch her stuff while she went to buy some.
According to one Tenderloin police officer, the owners of the accused shops are often overseas or impossible to reach. In some cases, different businesses accused of illegal gambling are owned by the same person.
In March and April, for instance, business license filings with the California Secretary of State show that Mohsen Mused, who was named in an October lawsuit for hosting multiple slot machines and keeping a pistol at Tenderloin Market and Deli, filed for two new business licenses: G & L Market And Deli Inc. on Geary Street, and Mas 6th Street Inc. Mused has not responded to the October lawsuit he was named in.
In the case of SF Discount Market, court records show that the owner, Abdulrahman Almehdhar, said gambling activity had ceased after being sued in October 2024. The store is now subject to warrantless searches, according to the city attorney’s office, and court filings show that a police officer allegedly saw a coin-pusher machine in the store as recently as May.
Almehdhar denied knowing the machine was illegal and removed it, according to later court records.
The Tenderloin police officer knowledgeable about gambling operations said that, if allegations lead to a lawsuit and a business owner loses their license, there is often a new operator willing to step in and start the same gambling operation again at the same place.
“They probably have a whole network of people who are fronting their name,” he said.
For years, Tenderloin gambling went relatively unchecked. City Attorney Dennis Herrera pursued legal action in 2003 against Café Thuy Hang (also known as “Café Thug Hangout”), alleging the location had become a hotspot for criminal activity: crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, stolen goods and evidence of gang activity.
Since then, while a few gambling-related lawsuits were filed in other areas of the city, like Bernal Heights and the Excelsior, such action has been practically unheard of in the Tenderloin.
“Lawsuits aren’t our goal. Compliance with the law is. So if we can get compliance without a lawsuit, that’s better for everyone,” said Jen Kwart, the city attorney’s spokesperson. “We try a number of administrative enforcement actions to get compliance with the law (such as [notices of violation]) and then litigation is usually a last resort if we can’t get compliance.”
Over the past year, it seems the city has reached that “last resort” far more frequently.
Del Seymour, a longtime Tenderloin figure and founder of Code Tenderloin, said in an interview last year that he is personally against gambling, but that the games have long been part of the fabric of the Tenderloin. While he acknowledged that some gambling joints attract criminal activity, he said he couldn’t “knock” a simple way for people to enjoy themselves in the neighborhood.
“Maybe that’s an outlet that takes the edge off,” Seymour said. “You can go get excited … one thing we do not have in the Tenderloin is hope.”
Pretty low to try to act like feeding someone’s addiction is some sort of social service for those who are down and out.
“notices of violation”. Ahh, right, a sternly worded letter, that’ll do it. /s
You’re making the City look like a bunch of twits.