Sandor Szekely, an employee of a company specializing in the management of “snacks”, replaced four devices rented from a restaurant in the city of Abrud with similar ones purchased from Slovakia.
The man told the person running the bar that he didn’t need a license or permit or ledgers to record the amount of money spent by the players, lying that the new machines transmit real-time information directly to the company’s headquarters via the Internet.
The one who thought up the fraud even concluded a contract for renting the space, signing in the name of the company in Slovakia. All the money played on the four machines was transferred directly to the man’s account, and the “factory” started production in May 2014.
“Trampled” by an inspection two months apart
The subsequent evolution of the situation became a nightmare for the Romanian who hoped to get rich. In less than two months, the place in Abrud was inspected by representatives of the National Office for Gambling, who discovered that the machines were operating without a license and authorization for online gambling activities.
A criminal complaint was filed and the “bread” confiscated. Sandor Szekely managed to collect a little more than 3,000 lei. “We did not follow the conduct of online gambling without holding the license required by the legal provisions, respectively the authorization to operate gambling.
I knew that the devices met the legal requirements, especially since until then, for the other devices owned by the company, there were no problems. In the job description, I had exclusively technical attributions – maintenance and operation verification”, the man declared in front of the investigators and judges.
He also stated that he would not have been aware that, for the four gambling machines, the licenses and related fees were not paid. The criminal case sent to court in 2019 was tried twice. Initially, the trial court did not correctly calculate the damage.
Under these conditions, the man’s criminal act has been prescribed since 2020. Şandor Szekely also tried to escape the material damages requested by the Ministry of Finance, through ANAF. But he was not successful.
Obliged to pay annual fees in full
According to judicial practice, in the case of the exploitation of games of chance without authorization and without an operating license by a natural person or a legal entity, the damage caused to the state for violating its monopoly right is the equivalent of all annual fees for obtaining the license and operating authorization, as well as the operating fee related to the actual number of devices operated.
Thus, the courts accepted ANAF’s action and forced the man from Alba to pay the sum of 800,000 lei, representing the equivalent of the annual gambling license fee and the minimum annual gambling exploitation fee. Each of the two amounts to 400,000 lei.
“The testimonies of the witnesses are unanimous in the sense, contested, moreover, by the defendant, that he brought the four gaming machines into the space, connected them to the Internet network, after which he concluded a service and rental contract space with this society.
The statement provided by the witness (…) is also edifying in the sense that the defendant owned gambling machines, collecting the amounts derived from their operation, amounts transferred to his personal account.
Last but not least, it is necessary to highlight the statement of the witness (…) who, asking the defendant about the need for registers or authorizations at the location of the devices, received the answer that this type of devices does not require any register or authorization because all operations will be able to be controlled from the company’s head office, via the Internet”, states the final decision, issued on April 18, 2024.
ANAF inspectors are still looking for him
The magistrates of the Court of Appeal also established that “all the testimonial and written evidence administered in the trial unequivocally attests that the defendant acted as a true owner of the four gaming machines, his explanations that they belonged to another person being unbelievable and refuted by the person in question”.
The man finally managed to get the seizure lifted from his bank accounts, but he will continue to be “followed” by ANAF inspectors for the recovery of the huge damage he owes to the state.
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