On June 30, 2007, 41 illegal keno gambling machines were destroyed at the Patterson junkyard located on Lafayette and East 16th streets in New Jersey.
Police officers and the city's licensing board representatives commented that they usually confiscate illegal keno machines from the back rooms of the city's coffee shops and bodegas.
The owners of the machines are then fined and the keno machines are kept in the police department's seize property room for 6 months. If no one claims the machines during this period, then the city will have no choice but to destroy them, according to officials.
Officials said that the keno machines are valued at $1,000 and $2,000 per piece, but no one gets them back. Police officers said that the owner of the keno machines, who are connected to crime organizations, just buy new ones.
Detective Sgt. Tom Trommelen from the city's Special Investigations Unit said that they keep confiscating the machines and the owners just keep putting them back in. City officials said that the machines have a negative effect on the lives of people in the area.
The city's license inspector, Ralph Gambatese Jr., commented that his office frequently receives calls from wives and children that their husbands and fathers have lost all of their money from their paychecks by playing keno games on these machines. Trommelen said that many people are affected by the seemingly harmless gambling machine.
Monday, July 16 , 2007
Louis Blechdom
