A court in Poland plans to sell thousands of confiscated slot machines as their storage has simply become too expensive, the responsible judge at the district court in Olsztyn told the news agency PAP on Wednesday.
The more than 9,000 slot machines were confiscated eight years ago as evidence in investigations into a criminal gang, the report by PAP said.
The prosecution accuses 22 defendants of money laundering and organizing illegal gambling without a licence. In the proceedings, 1,600 volumes of files have been compiled, but a date for the main hearing has not yet been set.
Market value of machines decreases year by year
The market value of the stored slot machines decreases year by year, said Judge Olgierd Dąbrowski-Żegalski. At the same time, he said that the costs for storage have drastically increased.
Last year, the court paid Caritas, which owns the warehouse, the equivalent of €290,000 ($346,681) for storing the machines.
However, the court’s decision to sell the slot machines is not yet legally binding. The legal team of the defendants opposes it, said Dąbrowski-Żegalski. It is therefore still unclear when the sale will take place – and whether buyers for the machines will be found.
