Rapper Nelly Arrested After Winning $50k Slots Jackpot

Nelly is a well known rapper who rose to prominence in the 2000s for songs like Dilemma, featuring Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, along with songs like Hot In Herre and Rid Wit Me. Many of these songs have resurfaced thanks to memes, TikTok and Facebook. Many millennials have fond memories of the rappers' music, as he crafted a soundtrack that accompanied some of the best (and probably worst) moments of their lives. However, no one would deny Nelly's biggest hits were primarily party songs. The line between persona and person is often a blurry one, and perhaps Nelly has been living in his party-heavy persona in his personal life for a bit too long.

The hip-hop superstar hit the jackpot while playing at his local casino, and what would have normally been a celebratory moment led to him being escorted off the property in handcuffs. Nelly didn't realize his outstanding warrant might be a problem for him when he hit the massive jackpot.

It's reported that Nelly won a slots' jackpot before he was arrested. It's not reported what slot game the 49-year-old rapper won the jackpot on, but he was detained at the Hollywood Casino and Hotel in his hometown of St.Louis. The rapper was accused of drug possession when four ecstasy pills were found on him.

TMZ reported Nelly had won a generous $50,000 jackpot right before the arrest! Nelly's lawyer Scott Rosenbaum told the site that Nelly was collecting his winnings when he was discovered to have a warrant. The background check the casino underwent revealed he had an outstanding traffic arrest warrant. Nelly initially thought it was a prank until he was handcuffed to the chair. He only had one free hand to 'collect the remainder of the cash' according to TMZ. The arrest led to the discovery of the aforementioned ecstasy pills. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported Nelly was released later on.

Nelly's lawyer made a statement to the Associated Press that the officer went out of his way to 'needlessly' run a search for warrants when Nelly went to collect his jackpot, then paraded him through the casino in front of a crowd of casino gamblers. His lawyer states the search was unwarranted, and there was no probable cause to search the 'Hot In Herre' performer. The lawyer stated “I am 100 percent confident this case will go nowhere. And we will be asking for an inquiry into this officer’s conduct."