Once again, the Georgia Lottery may have been cheated out of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars because a license holder 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 Wednesday, 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 tickets or whatever,” Luke said. “You know, the Georgia Lottery started out as money for education and scholarships, but when these COAMs pay out cash, education is not getting the money it should be getting.”
The BP at 101 Mays Rd. in Milledgeville is located on the Putnam County side of Lake Sinclair and is visible from Milledgeville Road/U.S. 441 beside 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. Some boxes of cereal expired two years ago and were still on the shelves.”
Class B COAMs are games of chance that resemble slot machines and are regulated by the Georgia Lottery Corporation. Revenue from the COAMs and lottery ticket sales is divided among prize money for winners, tuition grants and scholarships for undergraduate college students, the state’s pre-kindergarten program, computer and technology upgrades for schools, commission payments to retailers, and the Georgia Lottery Corporation’s gaming, operating, and marketing expenses.
The machines are legal in Georgia as long as winnings are paid via coupons or gift cards redeemable only for non-cash in-store merchandise, gas, or lottery tickets. According to Luke, not only was this BP paying out cash prizes, but the store did not even sell lottery tickets.
In January, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office received complaints that the BP was not legitimately operating the COAMs.
Luke and Turk immediately launched an investigation, which included undercover officers playing 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 reportedly took in nearly $400,000 from 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 said. “So, that’s a lot of money not going to education, and they’re not paying taxes on it.”
Following 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 at the time of the raid was arrested that day. Two days later, the business owner turned himself in at the sheriff’s office, accompanied by his attorney.
Tarun Chandra Kondeti, 25, of Mays Road in 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 had already placed a hold on him, he remained jailed at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
According to arrest records, he is from India.
The owner and license holder, Ahmer Chodhary, 31, of Derbyshire Drive in 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 is from Pakistan, is working in the United States on a green card.
The BP was closed following last week's raid at the owner’s discretion. It was unknown whether the business had reopened by the newspaper’s press time on Tuesday.