36 gamblers held at star hotel

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Task Force sleuths arrested 36 persons on charges of gambling at Hotel Mariott here on Thursday night.  The arrested include two gaming organisers, 28 punters and six assistant organisers. Police seized `23.37 lakh in cash, liquor bottles, casino coins, hookah pots and debit/credit cards from the accused. Three more involved in the offence are still absconding. The organisers also arranged POS machines for cashless transactions.

According to the police, Sanjay Kumar, Rakesh Juneja and Rajinder Nagpal Singh booked three rooms at the hotel on October 17  for holding card sessions  by collecting `2 lakh from each customer.  The illegal activity had been going in the hotel for three days.  The organisers had collected cash from the punters for casino coins to bet on three-cards game. They had also arranged swiping machines to accept debit/credit cards from the punters. “The organisers have a huge network of businessmen who are addicted to playing cards,’’ additional DCP (Task Force) C Shashidhar Raju said.

Acting on a tip off, the Task Force police raided the hotel. “We have registered cases against the 36 persons under Gaming Act and also under Excise Act,’’ the additional DCP said. The arrested persons were handed over to the Gandhi Nagar police  for further investigation.