14 fahfee players lose out in court
Fourteen Chinese fahfee players who pleaded guilty to illegal gambling were sentenced to six months in jail.
|||Johannesburg - Fourteen Chinese fahfee players, who pleaded guilty last week to illegal gambling in Bramley, Joburg, were sentenced to six months in jail.
Their sentences were suspended provided they don’t commit a similar offence in the next five years.
Three of them, including the one woman arrested, have previous gambling or lottery-related convictions.
According to the accused's statements, at about 4am on November 27, they were playing fahfee in a house on Beryl Avenue in Bramley Park when they heard a knock at the door.
They were so engrossed in their game that they yelled to the visitors that the door was unlocked.
They did not realise the callers were police.
Odaho Sengani of the National Lotteries Commission said fahfee, also known as ‘mochaina’, is “one of the biggest illegal lotteries in the country”.
In their admission of guilt statements, the accused said the R60 000 police confiscated was part of their game.
Sengani said police also seized 11 armoured vehicles during the arrest, but the SAPS communications officer for Bramley was unable to say what had happened to the vehicles.
All but one of the players are Chinese according to court documents. The other is a South African citizen with Chinese ancestry. Their ages range from 22 to 43.
According to Sengani, police were investigating the illegal rhino horn trade when they discovered the fahfee game. She also said that the alleged leader managed to flee while the 14 players were arrested.
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The Star
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