A nearly yearlong state crackdown on illegal gambling devices has yielded only a handful of the thousands of illicit poker and slot machines some lawmakers predicted the effort would uncover.

After 11 months and $2.5 million spent, Indiana’s new illegal gambling czar says his 15 investigators have seized 760 machines -- or less than half the number that went online last week, when Hoosier Park in Anderson opened its state-sanctioned, trackside casino.

When the crackdown was ordered last year, Republican leaders in the General Assembly promised the effort to haul the devices out of taverns, truck stops and other sites would more than offset the 4,000 new slot machines lawmakers authorized for the state’s two horse tracks.

A day after lawmakers adjourned in April 2007, Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, said the crackdown would target "the illegal and very exploitative machines, which number at least 12,000 in Indiana today."

"Armed with these new tools, they will take out far more machines than are allowed in," Daniels added.

Source:http://www.casinonews.org/