20 electronic gaming machines were seized, with a person responsible reporting to the competent authorities. This is the outcome of an intervention by the Fiamme Gialle of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Taranto to combat gambling.
The operation is the result of the constant economic control of the territory implemented by the Taranto financiers in the provincial capital; In fact, at night, the unjustified influx of customers into an anonymous building in a city neighborhood, with barred windows, protected by metal gates, video cameras and surveillance personnel, did not go unnoticed.
After carrying out some confidential inspections and stakeouts in the vicinity of the building, the soldiers of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Taranto gained access, ascertaining that as many as 20 gaming machines were present and functioning in the room on the first floor, including video poker machines. , prohibited by law, and slot machines not connected to the IT network of the Customs and Monopolies Agency. A real “clandestine gambling den” equipped with equipped gaming stations, coin machines and a “refreshment point” available to players.
At the end of the investigations, during which it was established that access to the gaming room was allowed only to a selected clientele upon recognition through the video surveillance system, the Financial Police proceeded to seize gaming machines as well as a substantial sum of money, proceeds from gambling, and to report a person responsible to the competent authorities.
Further fiscal investigations are being carried out aimed at verifying, by the manager of the club subjected to control, the regular payment to the Financial Administration of the “Single Tax Levy”, commensurate with the sums “played” and recorded on the machines’ meters.
In the public gaming sector, the Guardia di Finanza protects players from illegal, unsafe and unsecured gaming proposals, safeguarding the weakest groups, first and foremost minors.
