Six accused of illegal gambling ring in Jacksonville

Six people, including a long-time city employee, have been named in a court complaint calling each “a high level member” of an illegal gambling ring in Jacksonville.

All of them remain in the Duval County jail on multiple racketeering and gambling charges, some facing bail amounts as high as $3.5 million.

The group operated 10 storefronts on the city’s Northside and Westside, beginning in September 2021, according to a complaint filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office.

The complaint names 12 people who “willfully and knowingly engaged in illicit activities by operating an illegal gambling business in violation of Florida Statutes,” the complaint states.

The defendants would use the proceeds to buy things like property, cars and other items, the complaint says. 

The gambling suspects

According to the filing:

• Robin Rukab Azzam is referred to as the “manager or the boss” of the “enterprise,” helping with laundering the money obtained at gambling centers, then depositing it in banks or storing it at her home.

• Her husband, George Azzam, helped to run the centers.

• Ryan Strickland and Derek Fleming provided illegal gambling machines and software.

• Majd Dabbas was an owner who made illegal gambling machines called “Dragon Kiosks,” and also acted as a courier, delivering money from one site to another.

• Jerry Bass operated a company called Jax Social on Shirley Avenue and also helped launder the money.

• Wilbert Bannister conspired with others to operate the illegal gambling business and acted as a courier.

Five other people, including two of the Azzam’s sons, are also named in the complaint.

Former city employee

Rukab ran unsuccessfully in 2009 for the City Council At Large Group 5 seat, and her Supervisor of Elections biography states that she worked for the city in various capacities from 1979 to 2001, including the Information Services Division.

Rukab said she helped plan the first Mayport and All That Jazz festivals, worked to establish the city’s Motion Picture Office, and helped then-Mayor Tommy Hazouri’s Sports, Entertainment, and Conventions Department with advertising, promotions and marketing programs.

She ended her city employment at the Division of Consumer Affairs.

The complaint stems from a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigation into “various illegal gambling establishments” after complaints from the public. Detectives identified storefront operations on Blanding Boulevard, Lane and Lenox avenues, North Main Street and elsewhere.

Police also linked recent crimes to some of the operations, where “illegal gambling devices” were seen or stolen, the complaint states.

The investigation

In March 2023, officers handling a robbery at a Shirley Avenue site saw illegal machines, which resulted in the city ordering it to shut it down. It stayed closed for a few months, then Fleming paid a $10,500 fine to the city. In August 2023, Robin Rukab Azzam turned the power back on “for continued illegal gambling,” the complaint said.

About the same time, six illegal games and some computer terminals were stolen from the Lenox Avenue site, and officers saw other devices there, the complaint said.

On Oct. 3, a security guard was shot to death at the Dragon Arcade off Edgewood Avenue. That is when officers spotted “illegal Fish Tables, illegal Fire Links, and 41 computers commonly used in illegal gambling” while executing a search warrant, the complaint said.

The arcade has been closed since the shooting. Six other locations also are closed, the complaint said.

The complaint says Bass and Bannister were frequently seen going from the sites to Robin Rukab Azzam’s house with packages “believed to contain cash and other evidence.” The complaint states that Robin Rukab Azzam traveled to legitimate casinos to launder cash using a technique that mixes illicit with legitimate funds “to confuse the banking system and obfuscate the illicit money.”

The complaint also has page after page of information about accounts at 11 banks and credit unions where hundreds of thousands of dollars was deposited.

Azzam and her husband as well as Strickland all remain jailed on $3.5 million bail each on multiple charges including racketeering, money laundering, keeping a gambling house and possession of illegal slot machines, jail records show.

Bass also remains jailed on $1.5 million bail on similar charges. Dabbas remains jailed on $1.7 million bail on similar charges, while Bannister was charged with racketeering and conspiracy to racketeer and remains behind bars on $350,000 bail, jail records show.