At Mekan, in Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis), we played sold out all night and into the morning. But in the evening from Saturday to Sunday, investigators from the central racing and games service broke in and stopped the games, ending a year of games in total secrecy.
Thick smoke floated above the four large gaming tables where players – all from the Turkish-Kurdish community – faced each other during poker games. The success was such that customers lined up to sit around the play mats. When the police entered this bar on Stalingrad Avenue, fifty-five people were waiting their turn.
Without social distancing
“This operation made it possible to hear the players present and to challenge, on the spot and in the hours which followed, the five main organizers of the parties of clandestine games, aged 36 to 50 years”, specifies the prosecutor’s office of Bobigny.
The underground gambling den was in full swing. Confinement or not, we gambled frantically, playing around with the rules of social distancing. At Mekan, it was poker on all floors. “On two levels, this gambling den brought together about twenty players daily around poker games but also various variants of gambling”, adds the floor.
Players from Ile-de-France and beyond
On weekends it was crowded. Bluff lovers arrived in the evening and the games dragged on into the morning. The Mekan gaming tables had acquired a small notoriety which spread well beyond 93. “The players came from all over Ile-de-France but also from the south of Picardy”, indicates a commissioner of this specialized service .
According to a proven method, the organizers were sure to be a winner no matter what. “They had established a right to play: they spent every hour to puncture the participants whatever the gains”, specifies the SCCJ.
The rooms were always full. Everything was done to ensure the well-being and loyalty of the player. “The services offered went beyond games. This ranged from catering to assistance with transport to reach the premises, through the granting of money loans. “
Four organizers in pre-trial detention
On the spot, investigators discovered a large stock of cards, a slot machine as well as elements related to the accounting of underground games. They also seized nearly 10,000 euros in cash. No estimate of the profits made by this gaming SME has yet been specified. “But it was sufficient to support at least five people,” said a source close to the investigation.
The five main defendants, mostly domiciled in Seine-Saint-Denis, were brought before the examining magistrate on Tuesday, in particular for participation in an organized gang in the holding of a gambling house, association of criminals for the preparation of an offense, punishable by at least five years of imprisonment.
Newsletter The essential of 93
A tour of current events in Seine-Saint-Denis and the IDF
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The prosecution requested the provisional detention of four suspects and the placing under judicial supervision of the fifth.
In the space of two weeks, it is the second illegal gambling den dismantled in Seine-Saint-Denis. The latest was discovered in a hookah bar in La Courneuve. Their number is by definition difficult to assess. “There are a lot of underground games rooms in Seine-Saint-Denis. They do not all operate on a community basis, there is also a public from the cities who play there especially with drug money, ”says an investigator.
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