A Leeward Oahu couple pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to charges that they conducted a gambling operation on their property in Lualualei that included cockfights and card and dice games and deposited some of the proceeds into their credit union account in cash increments of $10,000 or less to avoid reporting requirements.

Lloyd Robert Marshall, 67, and Nitta Mitsuko Marshall, 65, each face up to five years in prison for conspiring to operate an illegal gambling business and up to 10 years for each of 13 counts of structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements. They will be sentenced in January.

In addition to pleading guilty, the Marshalls agreed to forfeit their property at 86-715 Puuhulu Road and the $170,578 in cash that authorities seized from the residence and a car on the property in a raid on July 2, 2011.

The government, however, will not seek the forfeiture of $239,770 that the Marshalls took to the Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union in 2010 and 2011 in cash amounts of $700 to $10,000 to deposit into their account or to make credit card payments.

Lloyd Marshall told U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren that he supplied people a place where they could have cockfights. "I was giving them an honest place to come to," he said.

Nitta Marshall said, "I assisted my husband with the money, making the deposits."

Federal prosecutor Beverly Wee Sameshima said the Marshalls had conducted illegal gambling on their property since at least 2009, when Honolulu police began an undercover investigation.

Members of Honolulu Police Department’s gambling detail have, however, made arrests at 86-715 Puuhulu Road since 2005 for charges related to cockfighting and gambling, according to court records.

Sameshima said the gambling operation involved one other person collecting $10 parking fees and $20 entrance fees and others serving as referees and matchmakers for the cockfights.