What looked like a typical single-family home in a suburban neighborhood on the edge of Orange County's Little Saigon had been turned into an illegal gambling house where betters plunked down thousands in cash and stolen credit cards during all-night binges fueled by drinking and drugs.
Over the past three years, police in the largely Vietnamese area said they've found more than a dozen of these homes run by gangs. In some cases, police were tipped off by neighbors tired of the noise and traffic; in others, they were led there after a fight landed one of the gamblers in the hospital.
Inside the homes, players try their hand at video poker or blackjack. But one of the biggest draws is a six-seater table featuring a video game that gamblers play for money. The game earned the homes the name "slaphouses" as the sound of players pounding their hands on the game controls can be heard outside.
"They don't just go there for an hour, they'll be there for hours on end," said Westminster police Sgt. Darin Upstill, adding that the objective of the game is to shoot out fire and kill a dragon. "
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