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The illegal slot machines are removed from the public order office and recycled. Michael Faust © Michael Faust
The city police seized 45 manipulated amusement gaming devices. For example, limits were set so high that one could “gamble away the house and yard,” according to the head of the city police.
On Thursday morning, the foyer of the public order office on Kleyerstrasse looks like a gambling den. More than 40 slot machines are lined up in a row, but none of them flash or blare. The screens are black. Because it is illegal entertainment devices that have been confiscated by the city police in recent months. And who now wait silently to be transported away and destroyed. “Such regular destruction operations are an important step with a strong signal effect,” says Matthias Heinrich, head of the city police. “At least these devices no longer pose any further danger and no more untaxed profits can be made.”
The 45 illegal machines come from completed criminal and administrative offense proceedings. They had been operated outside of legal requirements through manipulation or modifications. The hardware or software was changed, “set limits were increased,” says Heinrich.
An employee of the city police’s Operational Control and Investigation Unit (OPE), which has been used to combat illegal gambling in Frankfurt since 2018, shows what that means. He loads a machine with 60 euros. Six euros per revolution are called for. “But it can be a maximum of two euros,” explains the employee. He presses it a few times, it takes less than a minute and the 60 euros are gone. “You can’t lose more than 60 euros an hour on the slot machine,” says the employee. But he could now continue playing on the manipulated device. “You can lose 1,000 or 2,000 euros an hour.”
Balance sheet since 2018
242 illegal amusement gaming devices worth almost 1.9 million euros have been destroyed since the city police’s operational control and investigation unit (OPE) was founded in 2018.
More than 4700 business inspections carried out the OPE, initiated 1369 administrative offenses and 208 criminal proceedings. It confiscated almost 830 devices and caused the closure of 74 companies. sabu
For Heinrich, securing the machines is also a consumer protection measure. Gambling addicts would no longer have the opportunity to “gamble away the house and yard”. It is also good for the state treasury, which has lost tax revenue. “Tax assessments are issued – how much money has the person earned over the years and not paid taxes on? “That will be reclaimed,” says Heinrich. 737,300 euros in fines have also been imposed since 2018.
The illegal devices were not seized in arcades. “They pay attention there,” says Heinrich. “They don’t want to lose their license.” The machines can be found in bars, restaurants and back rooms. Often in rooms “where the windows are taped so that the players stay longer,” says the OPE employee. For Heinrich, “the criminal energy in this field is huge. “We haven’t caught everything yet.” But the OPE is on the right track, and they have now achieved “that there is at least a certain degree of uncertainty” among the operators of the illegal devices. The setting up, “they’re thinking about that now”.
The seized devices are now going to a recycling company in Griesheim. There they are broken down into individual parts. “The devices don’t just end up on the scrap heap,” says Heinrich. “Everything that is usable is recycled – and hopefully sensible devices are made from it.”
