Six gambling machines were confiscated from different shop owners during a sting operation at the Nancefield location in Musina last Friday (3 March). The operation was a joint effort by the Vhembe District Municipality, Musina Municipality's law enforcement section and the South African Police Service.
The shop owners were each fined R500 for operating gambling machines without licenses. Vhembe District Health Inspector Peter Mugwena said during their routine inspection at shops around Musina, they realised that gambling machines being operated without licenses were proliferating. "We kept a low profile while we were inspecting the shops for health and environmental compliance, while at the same time mobilising resources for this operation. The operation was easy because we did our research and knew exactly which shops to target," he said.
Mugwena said that running unregulated gambling facilities was dangerous because the operators lacked training in responsible gambling, potentially luring children and people who were addicted to gambling. "With the help of different stakeholders, we will prioritise vigorous law enforcement to root out illegal and unregulated gambling machines in our society. We also urge the public to report any illegal gambling machines to our law-enforcement agencies, so that those responsible face the full might of the law," he said.
The chairperson of Musina Crime Prevention, Mr Mashudu Kenny Lesida, was very impressed with the success of the operation and expressed his gratitude to everyone involved. "We have been complaining about these illegal gambling activities for some time, and we are happy that our government is doing something about it. These illegal gambling activities encourage crime because some criminals disguise themselves as gamblers, while they are only there to carefully study how they can come back and rob the shop owners," he said.
Lesida said that what was really painful about the matter was that the shop owners even allowed small children to use these gambling machines. "Some children would steal money from home to go and gamble, while others would use their school pocket money. We are very happy that the machines have been taken away because they only brought misery to our local people," he said.