Afternoon dice game in Athens ends with two men sitting in jail

Terry Evans Jr. and a young man were in the parking lot of an Athens business on the hot afternoon of Aug. 22 rolling a pair of dice in the shade of the building.

Suddenly, Athens-Clarke police units pulled up. Soon both were in handcuffs and off to the county jail.

Evans said Wednesday he was shocked by his arrest. And he claims deputies at the Athens-Clarke County Jail were also taken aback.

“They were surprised they actually put me in handcuffs and brought me down to the station for rolling dice,” Evans said about the booking officers.

According to the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino website, street craps is illegal in every state in the U.S., and a local police spokesman said it is considered illegal gambling in Georgia.

The arrests occurred about 3:30 p.m. at the corner of Nellie B Avenue and Vine Street. A police officer was parked nearby and viewing a camera that he reported showed two men gambling by throwing dice, then picking up money.

“We were just passing time. That’s all it was to me,” said Evans, a 46-year-old Athens man, who said police not only took the alleged few dollars of gambling money, but money he had recently drawn from his bank.

“When I got to jail, I had no money to bond out with. I ended up calling my mom to get me a bond,” he said. Bail was set at $1,300.

Had this been an organized gambling venture, Evans said there would probably have been 10 or 12 people gathered.

However, he said he and, "the kid,” a 23-year-old Athens resident, were locked up “for petty stuff,” which he said justified a warning.

“I’m glad I didn’t have a Monopoly board, we’d probably got locked up for playing Monopoly,” Evans said about the popular board game that does have a "go to jail" card.

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This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Afternoon dice game in Athens ends with two men sitting in jail