Three men have been fined a total of $45,000 for importing illegal gaming machines.

Graham Wall, 63, Thomas Kernan, 52, and David Rocha, 49, brought 20 bingo simulation games to Bermuda in September 2006 for use in The Palace nightclub.

The Police raided the venue two months later and seized the machines along with $20,000 cash from the office safe recorded as receipts from them.

The trio, directors of company named KSK, were charged with importing the machines and their accessories in breach of Bermuda's strict anti-gambling laws.

They were further accused of allowing them into the Palace in Reid Street, Hamilton, for gaming purposes, but denied all the charges. During a two-day trial last year before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner, defence lawyer Ed Bailey argued that the machines allowed players to participate in the lawful game of bingo. However, prosecutors argued that patrons were still playing illegal gaming machines nonetheless.

Convicting the men yesterday, Mr. Warner said that they did not dispute the machines were imported by sea, so the key question was whether the machines met the definition of prohibited gaming machines. He accepted they were formatted to replicate "that innocent game of bingo" but said they still fell foul of the ban on gaming machines, and would do whether they simulated snakes and ladders or a casino game like blackjack.

On the issue of sentencing, Crown counsel Takiyah Burgess pointed out that the captain of casino ship the Niobe Corinthian was fined $15,000 last year after being convicted of importing 100 gaming machines. He is in the process of appealing.

The maximum penalty is two years in prison or a $100,000 fine or both.

Mr. Bailey told Mr. Warner that the men were only trying to operate a bingo venue under a bona fide liquor licence, within Bermuda law, and not in a clandestine manner.

"The directors (of the company) were oblivious that they were in contradiction of the law," he said, adding that the Palace closed and the men have incurred substantial losses as a result of the court case.

"These gentlemen are all upstanding citizens of this community. They're all businessmen and there are no previous convictions," he argued, asking Mr. Warner not to impose a prison sentence.

The Magistrate ordered each of the men to pay a $15,000 fine, and said prosecutors could pursue an order for the forfeiture and destruction of the machines at a later date. He concluded by commenting on Mr. Bailey's argument that the machines simulated the legal game of bingo.

"If the Minister wants to legalise this game of bingo as played by these machines, it can be done by a stroke of the pen," he observed.

Speaking as he left court, Palace manager Kernan remarked: "This game is played in over 16 countries around the world where gaming is illegal. These are not gaming machines, they are bingo terminals."

He said the club has been closed since the raid, and he does not know about its future.

He later revealed that he and the others plan to appeal their convictions.