Padua police suspend gaming hall licence for 30 days over violations
Enforcement & compliance2 min read
The Padua questore suspended a gaming hall's licence for 30 days after police found violations of gambling and other rules during an inspection. Officers reported 42 gaming terminals still switched on during Veneto's required 13:00 to 15:00 suspension period, with five customers using them, as well as a payment terminal and further licensing and smoking-room breaches. The source does not name the hall.
Padua's police chief has suspended a gaming hall's licence for 30 days after officers found repeated breaches of gambling rules. The suspension took effect when the notice was served on 6 November.
Officers found 42 cash-prize gaming terminals still on during Veneto's mandatory suspension of play from 13.00 to 15.00. Five customers were playing on devices during the period when regional rules require play to stop and machines to be turned off. The operator had turned off only machines visible from the street, while those in interior rooms remained operational and available to customers during the prohibited period.
Officers found a card payment terminal despite a regional ban on such devices in gaming halls. They identified a breach of licence conditions requiring the operator to comply with the rules governing its authorised activity. The doors to the smoking room had been left open while customers smoked inside, allowing smoke to spread through the premises, officers found. The hall had not displayed prices for products sold at its players' bar or provided customers with alcohol-testing devices required because the bar closed after midnight.
In an earlier inspection on 25 February, officers from Este's Guardia di Finanza found 54 gaming terminals still on during the mandatory shutdown period. They found no information material on gambling addiction risks, which regional rules require to be displayed and made available to customers.