Two more raids in gambling crack down

POLICE have raided two online gambling shops in Engomi and Lakatamia in Nicosia as police launch an intensified campaign to fight illegal gambling over the Christmas period.

“The operations will be intensified in view of the holidays and will cover all of the districts with some of the operations taking place in premises where investigations have already taken place,” police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos warned yesterday.

According to Katsounotos, in the Friday night raid on the premises in Engomi police seized five outside cameras, one computer used for storing CCTV footage, one laptop, 27 computer towers, three cheques and cash. Eight people were also taken in to make statements regarding the investigation, including the owner and the manager.

The raid in Lakatamia revealed that illegally accepted bets were taking place on the premises and on the same premises the police found computers that transformed into gaming machines. From the Lakatamia premises 14 computer towers were confiscated as well as a total of €2,000 in cash and cheques, along with other evidence.

The annual turnover of online gambling in Cyprus according to officials is €2.5 billion.

A bill was prepared last June by the government to regulate online gambling and sent to the European Commission. A response was due by December 15 but has not yet been received. “We expect an answer any day now,” Ionas Nicolaou, the chairman of the House of Legal Affairs Committee said yesterday.

It also emerged on Friday that the police have supplied the Inland Revenue Department with information about the owners of online gambling establishments in a bid to catch tax evaders. Katsounotos commented that the information was gathered as part of the thousands of police checks carried out to once and for all do away with online gambling.

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