Four slot machine operators were reported to the Palmi Public Prosecutor’s Office and another six were sanctioned as part of checks on betting shops in various municipalities in the Gioia Tauro plaincarried out by the Carabinieri personnel of the Taurianova Company, in the province of Reggio Calabria, and by the officials of the Customs and Monopolies Agency (Adm) of Reggio Calabria.
The task force, operating under the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2020 between the Carabinieri and the ADM, focused on the prevention and repression of violations relating to online sports betting and unauthorized video lotteries for guarantee compliance with the rules protecting lawful and responsible gaming.
Thanks to the profitable and qualified operational support provided by the Adm officials, the Carabinieri responsible for the area carried out checks in the municipalities of Cinquefrondi, Cittanova, Polistena and Taurianova. In particular, the checks, carried out in complete synergy between the different skills in the field, focused on almost twenty commercial businesses managed by the holders of bet collection licenses, for a total of around 300 customers checked.
The investigations carried out ranged from checking authorizations for the exercise of commercial activities to employment rules for workers. Finally, there was no shortage of technical checks on the slot machines and VLT terminals owned, whose equipment must necessarily respond to a central server that manages the entire national network.
Following the checks, the Carabinieri reported four slot machine operators to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Palmi. For two of these, a huge administrative fine was also imposed because, inside their betting point, video lotteries were found not connected to the state network managed by the Customs and Monopolies Agency. Through the alteration of some IT components, in particular, the investigators believe that the agency’s control was circumvented in order to evade the taxes due on betting.
Further irregularities then affected another 6 betting shops, whose owners were administratively sanctioned for offenses linked to the Consolidated Law on Public Security Laws. The total amount of fines amounts to over 35,000 Euros.