Lewis County commissioners voted to close a temporary special revenue source that stemmed from an online gambling bust in 2010.
Commissioners in April 2010 voted to approve the Gambling and Fraud Enforcement Fund, which contained $643,027.82 in money distributed by the Washington State Gambling Commission after the commission, along with Chehalis police and county prosecutorial staff’s seizure of $4.8 million belonging to bank accounts associated with Ron Ehli.
Ehli, a former Lewis County resident, ran the website sportsbetting.com. Police interviews of two of his employees in 2010 indicated Ehli had fled the country for Costa Rica.
Washington state law prohibits online gambling; Ehli had been wanted on a warrant for professional gambling and unlawful transmitting or receiving of gambling information.
Then-prosecutor Michael Golden said his office was short- staffed after two deputy prosecutors and two staff members were laid off due to county budget reductions. He hoped to use part of the funds to retain a deputy prosecutor position that would have gone away as grant funding ran out that June.
The resolution signed by county commissioners in April 2010 allowed for the money to be shared between the prosecutor’s office, Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Lewis County Drug Court.
The funds were stipulated to only be used for prosecuting and abating fraud and gambling crime in the local area.
County financial analyst Suzette Smith told commissioners during their weekly public meeting Monday morning that the fund had a close date of Dec. 31, 2013, but it still had interest allocations coming in that needed to be given back to the Washington State Gambling Commission.
“They’ve been remitted back to the state of Washington, and it’s now time to close that fund,” Smith said.
According to a description of the county’s resolution to close the fund, the 2010 case was the only time any money was received and distributed into the fund.
The Chehalis Police Department had also received $643,000 from the gambling commission for its role in the investigation into Ehli and his website.
