Gaming machines allegedly imported illegally were designed for gambling and were not amusement games, a former FBI agent testified yesterday.

Giving evidence at the trial of two men accused of bringing the machines to Bermuda via the Niobe Corinthian casino ship, William Holmes, a "forensic gambling consultant" said he was contacted by the Police after they seized 100 machines from the vessel.

Fermin Alfonso Reyes, 29, the Panamanian captain of the ship, and George Kezas, 72, said by prosecutors to be its managing director, deny the importation charge.

Their trial, which has proceeded in several sessions since last October, has heard Police raided the vessel while it was moored at Marginal Wharf, St. David's, on August 11 last year. Reyes was arrested that day. Two days later, Police searched Kezas' home in Lily Park Lane, St. George's, and arrested him.

Mr. Holmes, who is based in Virginia, USA, listed the names of the slot machines and video slot machines he examined on November 23 as including Southern Gold, Jungle King, Wild Cherry, Gold Touch, and Magic Bomb. None, he said, could be played as they were set up to use cards loaded with cash by a cashier, and he did not have access to loaded cards.

Mr. Holmes defined gambling as "predominantly a game of chance" — saying this wording came from Bermuda and US law — and said the devices were games of chance, not skill. He added that because of their gambling characteristics, they could not be compared to amusement games such as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.

In answer to questions from Kevin Bean, lawyer for Kezas, Mr. Holmes agreed that he did not see the machines on the ship and did not connect them to computer equipment or play them during his investigation.

Under cross examination from Elizabeth Christopher, representing Reyes, he added that the machines had not been operational when he examined them, that he had not visited the Niobe Corinthian.

During the course of Mr. Holmes' evidence, Ms Christopher raised a concern that he had opened and examined the machines subsequent to them being made exhibits in the case. Asked by magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo if this was correct, Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney said three had been examined in what he described as "an oversight."

Mr. Tokunbo described this as "crazy" and said that now he was aware of the situation he would have to decide what weight to attach to the exhibits "having been interfered with."

The case is set to continue on February 19.