Following a detailed investigative activity directed by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Naples North, personnel of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples carried out a precautionary custody order against eleven subjects seriously suspected of crimes of criminal association, illegal exercise of gambling or betting activities and embezzlement. The operation originates from the seizure of a premises in the municipality of Marano di Napoli, in which indicative elements of a complex and structured system of illegal collection of bets managed by a transnational association. In fact, the building, without a sign, was equipped with a video surveillance system, giant screens installed on the walls and terminals connected to ".com" websites (prohibited by Italian law), referable to an Austrian company without a concession for Customs agency and monopolies.
The developments of the investigations, also conducted abroad, have made it possible to outline the existence of a transnational criminal association dedicated both to the illegal collection of online bets and to the placement of entertainment devices and devices with non-compliant or tampered with cash winnings, or compliant but disconnected from the ADM electronic network.
As regards the illegal collection of online bets, it emerged that the Austrian company represented the pinnacle of a structure made up of numerous networks of betting agencies located in Marano, Quarto and Naples, each of which coordinated by a contact person (so-called "master ”) which dealt with the affiliation of individual agencies (so-called “corner”). The Austrian company's server was located in Great Britain, but was controlled by a Serbian company through a hidden office located in a shopping center. Betting agencies were most often equipped with a license issued by the Police Headquarters and a contract with a Maltese company that held the concession; however, they were connected to the illegal sites made available by the Austrian company and allowed the betting of sums of cash well above the legal limits (at the time equal to €1.999,99).
These sums were divided and loaded onto the gaming accounts of individuals (mostly propertyless) other than the real bettors, in order to hide the origin of the money and the identity of the player. On some gaming accounts, bets exceeding €100.000 in one month have been detected. A particular method of betting was represented by the so-called "surebet", consisting in dividing the sum to be bet among all the possible options, in order to win with certainty an amount close to the sum wagered. This system, lawful in itself, was characterized, in this case, by a systematic violation of the anti-money laundering legislation due to the failure to identify the players, the consistency of the amounts played and the failure to report suspicious transactions. The criminal organization also had relations with the prison environment. For example, on the account of a subject, detained in the Naples-Poggioreale prison for drug trafficking, "top-ups" ranging from €70 to €800 were ascertained, bets totaling €20.000 and winnings totaling approximately €15.000 .
Thanks to the system described above, the criminal gang drew life from all its components: the end users gambled large quantities of cash (even of probably illicit origin), the "masters" received remuneration for the intermediation carried out and the partners of the Austrian company earned on the differential between won and lost bets. The illicit proceeds first flowed into the accounts of the Austrian company and then became available to the suspects through cash payments, bank transfers with false reasons and movements with prepaid cards, and were then the subject of malicious concealment maneuvers.
As proof of this, an interview was intercepted in Naples, in a well-known bar in Posillipo, in which the suspects confided that they had hidden large sums of cash (variable between €90.000 and €500.000) in the garden of a house and between the home walls of relatives and friends. The investigations also revealed that the suspects were planning the "engineered" bankruptcy of the Austrian company (and the related falsification of the financial statements) to the detriment of the creditor class and the Italian State. On this basis, last October 10th, following searches carried out in Italy and abroad, the shares of the Austrian company, its website and the financial and asset assets of the suspects were seized, consisting of 14 properties, for a total amount of over 3,2 million euros.
The organization also operated, as mentioned, in the field of illegal gaming through tampered with slot machines, placed in various businesses in the municipalities of Marano and Naples, thanks to contacts with individuals with multiple criminal convictions, one of whom was among the promoters of the association. To this end, the contribution of IT technicians and other personnel who had already operated in the companies of the group (...) of the family (...), before these were confiscated following final convictions for mafia-type association, was fundamental. Illegal gambling also took place in establishments with a public security license and regular contracts with concessionaires.
However, within these establishments, the organization managed both tampered slots, often transferred from one establishment to another, and legal slots which were periodically disconnected from the ADM network, in order to cloak the activity in legality and hinder controls. To corroborate the investigative hypothesis, the searches carried out during the investigations made it possible to seize numerous tampered with entertainment devices and devices with their gaming cards, some illegal online betting electronic stations and €150.000 in cash. On this basis, today, three suspects were subjected to precautionary custody in prison, seven to house arrest and one to the obligation to reside in the municipality of residence. The provision under review demonstrates the synergistic commitment of this Prosecutor's Office and the Financial Police in combating illegal activity in the gaming and betting sector, which fuels crime, pollutes the legal economy and damages player-consumers.
