Ostallgäu: Two men convicted of illegal gambling

Just over a fortnight ago, two men in Bavaria were sentenced in the second instance to fines and imprisonment for illegal gambling. The Regional Court of Kempten considered it proven that the two men had engaged in illegal gambling from 2020 onwards and thus unjustly enriched themselves. However, both the public prosecutor's office and the lawyers have lodged an appeal.

Just last month, we at GambleJoe reported that the LKA in North Rhine-Westphalia was complaining about a lack of resources to combat illegal gambling. Two men from the Ostallgäu district have now been sentenced again to fines and imprisonment for illegal gambling. However, the case is unlikely to be finally settled as neither the public prosecutor's office nor the lawyers of the accused agree with the judgement - both sides have lodged an appeal.

132,000 euros are to be confiscated from one of the brothers

In mid-July, the Kempten Regional Court handed down the verdicts in a case in which two brothers are alleged to have operated illegal gambling from 2020. The two defendants had previously been found guilty at first instance, but lodged an appeal, meaning that the case now ended up before the regional court. The judges in Kempten sentenced one of the brothers to one year and eleven months in prison. The court also ordered that assets totalling 132,000 euros be confiscated from the accused.

In contrast, the other brother was "only" sentenced to a fine of 180 daily rates of 40 euros each. This corresponds to a total fine of 7,200 euros. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 2,000 euros. Shortly after the verdict was announced, the lawyers for both brothers as well as the public prosecutor's office announced their intention to appeal.

At first instance, the Kaufbeuren district court ruled that 847,000 euros should be confiscated from one of the brothers alone. The judgement at second instance is therefore already an enormous success for the two accused brothers. It was only at the end of May this year that we at GambleJoe reported that an illegal gaming machine had been found at a hairdresser's in Hamburg. A few weeks later, we also reported that an illegal casino operation had also been unearthed in NRW.

Illegal gambling is to be decriminalised

If the Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has his way, at least participation in illegal gambling is to be decriminalised in future. It is planned that mere participation will then only be considered an administrative offence and no longer a criminal offence. However, no agreement has yet been reached on the plans in the political arena.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/allgäu-ostallgäu-bayern-berge-1610370/