THE Mpumalanga Economic Regulator has destroyed over 300 illegal gambling machines confiscated from spaza shops across the province.
The majority of the Chinese roulette machines were destroyed on Thursday, 14 December at Tekwane South outside Mbombela.
Communications manager Cedrick Chiloane told Daily Sun the illegal machines are becoming a problem in the province, especially in rural communities. He said they were not supposed to be in public spaces where there were minors.
"These are proceeds of crime. They are illegal. They have been counterfeited and their purpose is to take money from unsuspecting people who are using them," he said
Chiloane said as part of regulation in the industry, all gambling machines needed to go through the certification process. He said the process was very thorough in that they regulate a number of things from the quality of the machine, health risk and how often the machines must pay out.
"In a licensed environment, the cerfication process will tick all those boxes. In this case, these are the machines that were meant to rob the poor people out there hence we are destroying them today. We are saying to our communities they should never use these machines when they see them, the next thing they should do is to report," he said
The regulator was working with the police in seizing these machines. Chiloane said workshops were usually conducted in various communities.
