Police and customs officers in Silesia have detained 11 people suspected of belonging to a criminal group that organized illegal gambling. During searches, officers seized more than 50 gaming machines and more than 1 million zlotys in cash. Five of those detained were jailed pending trial.
Junior Aspirant Mateusz Mrachacz of the Silesian police press team told PAP that the detentions, which took place in recent days, involved officers from the Economic Crime Unit of the provincial police headquarters in Katowice, police counterterrorism officers and personnel of the Silesian Customs and Revenue Office in Katowice.
They searched the suspects’ homes and 11 venues with gambling machines in Rybnik, Racibórz and surrounding towns, seizing 53 machines. “Also seized were Polish and foreign currency totaling more than 1 million zlotys, a collection of 12 gold coins, and a substantial amount of money in foreign currencies whose value cannot be determined because of its dampness and the impossibility of counting it,” Mrachacz said.
The investigation is being supervised by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gliwice. The office’s spokeswoman, Agnieszka Bukowska, said the case concerns an organized criminal group that set up and ran illegal slot-machine gambling at various locations in the south of Silesian Voivodeship. The gang allegedly operated from 2019 to 2026.
Prosecutor Bukowska said the venues where illegal gambling was conducted had been shut down by authorities several times, and the machines inside were confiscated. Members of the group then installed new machines in the same venues.
Those detained in recent days were charged with running illegal slot-machine gambling and participating in an organized criminal group. One of the detainees, a Czech citizen, was charged with leading the gang. At the prosecutors’ request, the District Court in Gliwice ordered five suspects held in pretrial detention. For the remaining six, the prosecutor imposed non-custodial preventive measures. They face prison sentences and heavy fines. (PAP)
