Four people, three men and a woman, were referred Monday January 25 to the Paris judicial court for having organized a “traveling gambling den”, franceinfo learned from corroborating sources on Tuesday January 26th. They are summoned before the criminal court “at a later hearing” to be judged heads of “realization and organization of operations of games of chance or money prohibited in an organized band”, indicates the Paris prosecutor’s office to franceinfo.
Two of them were arrested and taken into custody on Saturday evening in the 13th arrondissement, while twelve players were present in the apartment, explains to franceinfo Eric Levy-Valensi, divisional commissioner and deputy head of the racing department and games. Several thousand euros were in the organizers’ cash. The next day, Sunday, three other people were arrested. In all, they are five to have been placed in police custody, all from the Paris region, and aged 25 to 38 years. They have more or less important roles, ranging from recruiting players, transporting equipment, and overseeing this organization. One of the persons referred is “a 38-year-old woman who worked as a croupier in a Parisian gambling club”, continues the deputy head of the racing and games department.
The players paid their entry and their chips. The organizers were doing as quickly as possible to extract the cash box and thus avoid a robbery or a conflict between players. That evening, Saturday, there were several thousand euros collected. The investigators seized, during searches and during the seizure of bank accounts, more than 30,000 euros.
For two months, investigators from the gaming department monitored this gambling den, which changed location every weekend. The organizers rented apartments on rental platforms. They set up the game table for Friday evening and Saturday. The itinerant gambling den has set up in particular in the south of Paris, in the 13th arrondissement, the 14th arrondissement, in the north of Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne.
The organizers communicated via social networks, Snapchat in particular, to give the meeting places to the players. They risk up to five years in prison for illicitly holding this gambling den.
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