Bases destroy illegal gambling haul

The British bases on Monday destroyed dozens of gambling tables and a number of gaming machines worth thousands of euros that had been confiscated from illegal casinos operating within the SBA over the past 12 months.
Bases personnel in Episkopi, driving a JCB, smashed 14 roulette tables, 48 poker/blackjack tables and 13 electronic gaming machines, and casino signs in the presence of the media. The items had been confiscated from two different premises during seven different police operations in the past year.
SBA chief of police Mick Matthews said bases authorities wanted to send a clear message to those who operate illegal gambling premises in the bases. “We will find you, they will hunt you down and we will continue to seize and destroy your equipment,” he said. “We do not want this equipment to fall back into the hands of criminals,” he said.
Bases spokesman Sean Tully told the Cyprus Mail the equipment destroyed on Monday accounted for only 20 per cent of what has been confiscated but the rest cannot be destroyed as long as cases are pending before the court.
The items were needed as evidence right now but would meet the same fate as those destroyed on Monday once the case had finished, he said. Still in storage, he added were hundreds of gaming computers, more tables, chairs, motorbikes and even cars, which he said were considered ill-gotten gains and seized by police.
“We do not tolerate gambling in the SBA,” Tully said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.