A South Carolina man was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday for running an illegal video poker operation and bribing law officers to look the other way.

According to media reports, James Otis Henderson, majority owner of Henderson Amusements, Inc., a South Carolina-based vending machine company, made $14 million over a seven-year period by operating illegal video poker machines in western North Carolina.

During that same period, Henderson paid out more than $114,000 in bribes to local sheriffs and deputies so he could continue the video poker operation, the reports said.

Also sentenced by Judge Thomas Selby Ellis to lesser sentences for their roles in the video poker operation were Barron Sloan Henderson, Harold Steven Hartness and Jerry Pennington, the reports said.

Barron Sloan Henderson owns 25 percent of Henderson Amusements, Inc., while his older brother, James Otis Henderson, owns the remaining 75 percent, media reports said.

Hartness and Pennington worked for the Hendersons, the reports said.

Judge Ellis told the quartet after he sentenced them that he may decrease their sentences, depending on their cooperation in the upcoming trial of Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford, the reports said.

Medford is one of the sheriffs who was bribed to overlook illegal video poker machines.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)