FOUR men have now been charged after an illegal gaming investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit – British Columbia’s (CFSEU-BC) Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team (JIGIT) resulted in a search warrant on a business on July 4.
In October 2019, CFESU-BC JIGIT began an investigation into a suspected illegal gaming house operating in a Burnaby business called “Big Shots Café”.
On the evening of July 4, CFSEU-BC JIGIT, with the assistance of the CFSEU-BC’s Uniform Gang Enforcement Team (UGET) and the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team (LMDERT), executed a search warrant at the business and located several individuals participating in activity that appeared to be that of an illegal gaming house.
Seized from the business were items such as poker tables, slot machines, cash, poker chips and playing cards.
A charge of keep a common gaming house or common betting house contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada has now been laid against four males:
• Francisco Batista Pires, 57-year-old resident of Burnaby
• Richard William Kosterman, 58-year-old resident of Delta
• Jay Arnold Damian Franco, 40-year-old resident of New Westminster
• Andrew David MacFarlane, a 36-year-old resident of Burnaby
“Illegal gaming, and the locations that allow them, have been the root of other criminal offences that impact the safety of the public. It is a criminal offence to be involved in the active participation of illegal gaming and in British Columbia, all gaming activity that may result in a form of financial gain to those involved in its operation, must be sanctioned by the Province of British Columbia’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB),” said CFSEU-BC Media Relations Officer Sgt. Brenda Winpenny on Thursday.
As this investigation is now before the courts, no further information will be released, she added.
The CFSEU-BC thanked the Burnaby RCMP and Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team for assisting with this investigation.