Complaints, sanctions and seizures are the outcome of a vast police operation across the country in the sector of combating illegal gaming and betting, also aimed at protecting consumers.
Six hundred commercial establishments were inspected, with over 3339 subjects identified. 66 people were reported, over 600 thousand euros in fines and 40 illegal devices seized.
A clandestine gambling den managed and frequented by Chinese citizens was discovered in Prato: 38 people were reported for gambling (among them 9 were found to be illegal on national territory), equipment and cash worth over 110 thousand euros were seized.
In Caltanissetta, a real clandestine laboratory for the manufacture of weapons was also identified, including all the equipment necessary for the construction of handguns and a handcrafted model of pistol and ammunition of different calibers. Site owner arrested.
Eighteen commercial establishments were subjected to inspection in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria alone, while a series of violations regarding prevention and workplace safety led to the temporary closure of a betting agency in the province of Varese.
Similar violations were also found in the province of Pesaro-Urbino, where the checks also revealed the illegal and promiscuous use of some private clubs used as gaming rooms.
The monitoring made it possible to verify a constant mapping of the frequenting of public places and gaming establishments as well as of the connected economic interests, to highlight possible risks of infiltration of mafia-type organized crime, including foreign ones, in the gaming sector, sometimes implemented through sophisticated techniques for recycling and reusing goods of illicit origin.
(Unioneonline/ss)
