On May 5, 2015, police officers in Byron, Georgia, raided Captain Jack’s Crab Shack and charged 71-year-old Ronnie Bartlett with four violations of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, commercial gambling, and three other gambling-related offenses.
The restaurant, owned by Bartlett and his wife, Lee, had a game room that contained nine coin-operated amusement machines (COAMs) under a license with the Georgia Lottery Commission. By law, the machines must require some skill to win, and winners cannot receive cash payouts.
During an investigation prior to the raid, Detective Melanie Bickford and Officer Christine Welch of the Byron Police Department visited Captain Jacks’s and played the video machine. Welch would later say that at times it appeared she could win without having to interact with the machine. In addition, she said she filmed herself taking her winner’s certificates to the restaurant and receiving lottery tickets and cash.
After the raid, David Cooke Jr., the district attorney for the Macon Judicial District, moved to seize the restaurant and freeze Bartlett’s assets. A judge in Peach County Superior Court granted the motions, closing the restaurant.
Bartlett’s trial in Peach County Superior Court began in February 2018.
Welch testified about the undercover investigation and the cash she received for winning. She described the process of playing. First, she would put money in the machine, and the wheels would start spinning. Then, she pressed another button to lower the wheels and make matches across the middle of the screen. Welch said there were times she won without having to touch the machine.
Another customer, Karen Briscoe, testified that she frequently played the amusement machines at Captain Jack’s. She said she redeemed her winnings for a combination of lottery tickets, meal vouchers, and cash. She also said she had never won without having to “nudge” the wheels.
Christopher Edwards testified for the state as an expert in forensic accounting. He said that Captain Jack’s had taken in $4.4 million in cash from its video machines between October 2013 and May 2015. Of that, $2.4 million was unaccounted for in the records. He said that this meant the redemptions for winning must have been paid in cash.
On cross-examination, Edwards said he had not factored in several variables, such as any licensing fees paid by Bartlett, and he had also included revenues from other businesses owned by Bartlett.
Nick Farley, who owned a testing laboratory used by the lottery commission, testified for the defense. He said he had examined the COAMs seized from Captain Jack’s and found no evidence of tampering. He said none of the seized machines allowed a player to win without nudging the symbols into alignment.
He said Welch had been confused. When she thought she had “won” without touching the machine, she had just received a bonus that offered a free game or a continuation of the existing game.
Mark Nizdil testified for the defense as an expert on the gaming industry. He said the COAMs are electronically linked to the lottery commission, and tampering would show up in the communication logs.
Bartlett moved for a directed verdict of acquittal, arguing that the state had not proven its case. The judge denied the motion.
On February 19, 2018, the jury convicted Barlett of commercial gambling and two misdemeanors: possession of gambling equipment and keeping a gambling place. Bartlett was placed in the Peach County Jail. He was sentenced on March 21, 2018, to five years in prison, with three of those years suspended. The judge then issued an appeal bond, releasing Bartlett with an ankle monitor and restricted movement while he pursued an appeal.
In his appeal, Bartlett said the trial judge erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal. There was insufficient evidence to support his conviction, he said, as there was no evidence that he tampered with the machines to make them entirely games of luck.
The Georgia Court of Appeals vacated Bartlett’s conviction for insufficient evidence on June 25, 2019. It said the state had not shown any intent by Bartlett to tamper with the machines. “Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the State’s evidence, at most, supported that the COAMs malfunctioned in some way to allow Welch to win without ‘nudging’ the wheels,” the court said.
The court also said that cash payouts did not turn the COAMs into illegal gambling devices. That was covered under a different part of the statute, and the state chose not to prosecute Bartlett for that alleged offense, which is a misdemeanor. The charges were later dismissed.
In 2025, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law allowing persons who were wrongfully convicted to file claims for state compensation.
Bartlett filed a claim on August 12, 2025.
On November 21, 2025, an administrative law judge ruled that Bartlett had shown that he had not committed the crimes for which he was convicted.
Bartlett sought compensation for a brief period of pre-trial detention, the time he spent in jail between his conviction and sentence, and for the time spent wearing an ankle monitor while his appeal was being heard. However, he was unable to provide specific dates for his detention, and the state argued that wearing an ankle monitor didn’t count as incarceration. The judge denied him compensation but in January 2026 approved $9,800 for Bartlett’s attorney fees.
Separately, Bartlett had filed a federal lawsuit against Cooke and others in 2016, claiming that prosecutors and police had illegally seized his businesses by falsifying information on the application for a search warrant and for claiming a RICO violation where none existed. A judge dismissed part of the case in 2021 and the remainder in 2022.
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 04-17-2026
