Garda plan crackdown on illegal gambling in pubs

Date Published: 31-Mar-2011

By Declan Tierney

Pubs and betting offices in Galway City have been accused of operating illegal gambling by featuring poker and slot machines without having a licence to do so.

Galway Gardaí have confirmed that three businesses in the city face prosecution this month for illegally having gaming machines on their properties.

It was alleged this week that several pubs and bookmakers in the city have poker machines on their premises and were breaking the law in the process.

It was also claimed that some of the machines are capable of taking €50 notes and that gambling addicts could lose this amount in a matter of minutes.

Gardaí say that they take his matter very seriously and will confiscate poker machines from premises once they are made aware of their presence.

“If a pub or any other premises has a machine that pays out money, then it is illegal and should be reported to the Gardaí. At the moment we have three prosecutions pending and they will be coming before the courts during April.

“The casinos in Salthill have a licence under the Gaming and Lotteries Act to have machines that pay out money, but they are illegal in pubs or betting offices,” the Garda spokesman added.

A caller to the Liveline programme on RTÉ this week claimed that there were poker and slot machines in several pubs and bookmakers in Galway City.

“I am a full-blown poker machine addict,” the caller admitted, and said that he could not go into a pub or betting office in Galway because of the fear of coming across one of the machines.

He claimed that in one betting office, he put in a €50 note into a poker machine, bet up to €2 a hand and his stake was gone in a couple of minutes.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.