RIMINI. Last night, during a prevention and control service in the area, a group of ‘ball dealers’ who were offering the scam game in Marina Centro were removed. The officers of the Local Police of Rimini surprised and stopped two people, charging them with the prescribed sanctions provided for by the Urban Police Regulations and seizing 200 euros.
It was supposed to be a normal control and surveillance service of the territory, to protect public order and safety, aimed at preventing and combating drug dealing activities, but yesterday during the evening shift, around 8 pm, the plainclothes agents of the judicial team came across a group of people in a circle, including some suspicious subjects, busy staging the three-ball game.
From there, the timely intervention of the agents, which took place in the Viale Vespucci area, which made it possible to stop and identify two people of foreign origins, one respectively engaged in offering the scam game and the other in faking a bet. The team was thus able to proceed, sanctioning the two people stopped: the first, with a fine of 1000 euros, for being caught at the table that organized and proposed the game. The second person (alleged accomplice) with a fine of 50 euros, as he was ready to make a bet of 200 euros, a sum subsequently subjected to precautionary seizure. The first was also reported in a state of freedom, as he was caught with an expulsion order valid for 3 years, notified to him in 2021 for the same type of violation.
The Local Police recalls that the game of ‘three bells’ (or cards or balls) is anything but a game, but a prohibited activity carried out by organized gangs, aimed at emptying the pockets of the victims who are enticed to participate. This activity is prohibited by art. 3 of the Urban Police Regulations, which provides for sanctions of 50 euros for the unfortunate player and 1000 euros for the organizers (everyone, including the fake players and the “posts”), and any sums played are subject to precautionary seizure.
The scene is always the same: a table that suddenly appears on the sidewalk, a ‘magician’ with three cards or three balls that appear and disappear under three bells or three glasses. Next to them, accomplices pretending to bet, while some “post” is stationed nearby and warns of the possible arrival of men in uniform.
