Brothers nabbed for illegal slots

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, accompanied by statewide law enforcement officials, yesterday announced the arrest of brothers Ira and Ned Katuran for setting up illegal slot machines in the three bars they owned, the North Wales Pub in North Wales, the New Telford Inn in Telford and the New Valley Tavern in Plymouth Township.

The investigation sprang to life after the North Wales Police Department received a tip from a North Wales Pub employee about the illegal machines in the bar that Ned Katuran owned.

"We started this investigation in March, and we found that each of these three bars had illegal slot machines, and these bars were owned by these two brothers," Ferman said, standing in front of the slot machines and $290,000 in cash investigators seized during the operation. "They had these machines inside their bars, which were then manipulated with metering devices and knock-off devices."

The brothers had two illegal gambling machines in each of their three establishments.

Ira, 48, who lives on Ridge Pike near Chemical Road, in Conshohocken, and Ned, 46, of Loney Street near Burholme Avenue, in Oxford Circle, face a number of felony charges, including running a corrupt organization, dealing in unlawful proceeds and possession of illegal gambling devices.

The operation was a simple one, Ferman said. A customer would put money in the machine and gamble, and should they win, based on the readout of the machine, they would then be paid their winnings in cash by a bar employee.

By using the knock-off device, the brothers were able to reset the machine, making it appear that it hadn't been played. The Katurans, the D.A. alleges, would then pocket the proceeds collected from these machines.

The Katurans received the machines from James Connelly, himself arrested last year on various illegal gambling charges.

"The machines are manufactured for amusement only," Ferman said. "So manipulating these machines and putting these devices on them makes them illegal." *