A Schuylkill County amusements company has entered a guilty plea on charges it placed illegal gambling machines disguised as Pennsylvania Skill machines in numerous stores, including many here in our area.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced Monday that Deibler Brothers Novelty Company, of Hegins Township, plead guilty to a first-degree felony charge of corrupt organizations.
The guilty plea comes after the company unknowingly hired a State Trooper, who was fake-retired to work on a sting inside the company and expose their scheme.
After entering the guilty plea, the company was placed on a term of probation and ordered to forfeit $3 million in cash and assets.
Ricky Goodling, an actual retired State Police corporal and former Director of National Compliance for Pace-O-Matic, pleaded guilty last week to money laundering.
An investigation – led by information gotten from the undercover agent – revealed that Deibler Brothers installed actual gambling machines in more than a dozen Pennsylvania counties, including Schuylkill. The machines were typically disguised to make it look like they were real but lacked a specific stage in their games that turned them from gambling machines to Skill machines, per the letter of the law on Skill machines.
“This company was warned time and time again, and continued to snub its nose at state regulations by flooding Pennsylvania counties with illegal gambling machines,” Sunday says. “This plea resolution secures a substantial forfeiture of assets to the Commonwealth, and is the second conviction in recent days against offenders contributing to the disorganized environment of illegal video gaming in Pennsylvania.”
Coal Region Canary was the only local news source to report on the initial investigation into Deibler Brothers and when charges were first filed against it and its ownership. And The Canary was the only news outlet present at the preliminary hearings for the Deibler brothers. Read more of that coverage, including how the company pulled off its scheme and how it was caught in our coverage below:
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