Braunschweig public order office sends

Braunschweig's public order office has used undercover test players to detect violations in gambling halls. Normally, undercover investigators are only used in police investigations to solve serious crimes. This is the first time that undercover investigators have been used in casinos to investigate misdemeanours.

In February this year, we reported that the Offenburg Regional Court had sentenced the former head of the public order department of the city of Kehl and a casino operator. The two men were convicted of corruption and bribery, among other charges. The current case, however, concerns the way in which the Braunschweig public order office conducted its investigations. For the first time, undercover investigators were used to check a total of 30 casinos in the city.

Undercover testers inspect casinos

After receiving several tips in the past that some arcade operators in the city were not taking the legal requirements very seriously, the Braunschweig Public Order Office recently sent out several undercover test players.

Among other things, the aim was to check whether banned players were excluded from gambling and whether it was possible to play on several machines at the same time. As recently as June this year, we reported that there were now around 200,000 banned players in the nationwide OASIS ban file.

The result: all 30 casinos tested checked their test players for entries in the national blacklist. In five cases, however, the test players managed to play on more than one machine at the same time.

The result: All 30 tested casinos checked the test persons for entries in the national exclusion file. In five cases, however, the test players managed to play on more than one machine at the same time.

In addition, in three cases the law enforcement officers found that there was not enough supervisory staff present in the arcade. Incidentally, there was no smoking in any of the 30 arcades in Braunschweig, so there were no breaches of the ban on smoking in arcades in Lower Saxony, which will come into force in 2022.

In all cases, the city of Braunschweig has initiated administrative offence proceedings. The test players were already out and about in Lower Saxony's casinos at the end of September. It is questionable whether the test players were also provided with a gaming budget by the city of Braunschweig and who would have been allowed to keep the money in the event of a high win.

Conclusion

For the first time in the history of Braunschweig's public order department, undercover test players have been deployed. However, the players, who were acting on behalf of the city, were only able to detect a relatively small number of offences. In all 30 casinos, player data was compared with the central blocking file. Only a few minor offences were found. Nevertheless, it can be expected that the regulators will use "undercover investigators" more often in the future to uncover regulatory violations and criminal offences in gaming halls.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/ordnung-ordnungsamt-amt-behörde-5275348/