Once again, the Georgia Lottery may have been cheated out of possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars due to a license holder who is accused of not following the law.
Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Detectives Lt. Harry Luke and J. Turk served a search warrant and raided the BP Food Mart at Lake Sinclair on Wed., May 6.
“They were paying out cash for winnings on their coin operated amusement machines (COAMs) instead of gift cards to be redeemed for lottery or whatever,” Luke said. “You know, Georgia Lottery started out as money for education and scholarships, but when these COAMs pay out cash, the education is not getting the money that they should be getting.”
The BP at 101 Mays Rd., Milledgeville, is located on the Putnam County side of Lake Sinclair and is visible on Milledgeville Road/U.S. 441 beside the Sunset Marina.
“It’s a gas station food market which is clearly a front for a gambling operation,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. “They sell gas there and groceries are on the shelves inside, but most of that had expired. There were some boxes of cereal that expired two years ago and were still on the shelves.”
Class B COAMs are games of chance that resemble slot machines and they are regulated by the Georgia Lottery Corporation. The money from the COAMs and Lottery ticket sales is divided into prize money for winners, to fund tuition grants and scholarships to undergraduate college students, to fund the state’s pre-kindergarten program, to provide computer and technological upgrades for schools, commission payments to the retailers, and lastly, for the GLC’s gaming, operating, and marketing expenses.
The machines are legal in Georgia as long as the winnings are coupons or gift cards that can be redeemed only for non-cash, in-store merchandise, gas, or lottery tickets. Not only was this BP paying out cash for prizes, but the store didn’t even sell Lottery tickets, Luke said.
In January, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office received complaints that the BP was not operating the COAMs legitimately. Luke and Turk immediately began an investigation which included undercover officers going in to play the machines.
“There were so many people playing on them that they had to wait in line to get on a machine,” Sills said.
During the first quarter of 2026, the BP took in almost $400,000 on the machines, according to Luke.
“So, if you figure that, it’s like $1.2 million for the year if they consistently take in the same amount per quarter,” he noted. “So, that’s a lot of money not going to education, and they’re not paying taxes on it.”
After the raid, an official with the Georgia Lottery Corporation deactivated the machines and an administrative hearing was scheduled within the next 30 days.
The clerk working inside the store when it was raided was arrested that day. Two days later, the business’ owner turned himself in to the sheriff’s office, accompanied by his attorney.
The clerk, Tarun Chandra Kondeti, 25, of Mays Road, Eatonton was arrested May 6 and charged with commercial gambling and five counts of exception to the gambling law. Bond was set at $26,000, but because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement already had a hold on him, he’s still in jail at Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. He is from India, according to the arrest records.
The owner and license holder, Ahmer Chodhary, 31, of Derbyshire Drive, Marietta, was arrested May 8 on charges of commercial gambling and keeping a gambling place. He was released on a $6,000 cash bond. Chodhary, who hails from Pakistan, is working in the U.S. on a Green Card.
The BP was closed after the raid last week, per the owner’s choice. It was unknown if it had re-opened by the newspaper’s press time Wednesday.