A good part of the coins with which thousands of Bogota citizens feed begging in the city ended up in those games. But the bulk of the market is moved by a perverse strategy, which went through creating a double addiction to the street people already consumed by drugs: that of gambling.

Part of the 'quota' for the mirrors, lights and mouths ripped from the cars trapped in the middle of the city were paid in the same coins used in the machines, as well as doses of drugs. Thus, the owners of the dreaded 'hooks', which they handled by equal sale of drugs, prostitution, murders and illegal games, recovered part of what they paid for the stolen car parts.

The profits were huge. Every day, hundreds of thousands of coins were taken in packages whose contents were calculated by weight.

Paradoxically, the product of the Bronx slots could be one of the least made up, since there was no authority that could control them. But across the country there are thousands that seemingly work under the rules, but are actually used to launder money from drug trafficking and other illegal activities

That is the explanation why in many village and city stores the owners of the machines pay up to 300,000 pesos (COP´s) per month of rent, regardless of whether the bettors are scarce or never arrive.

Police and Coljuegos, the state entity that controls gambling, have detected in recent years an increase of the devices in areas with high impact of micro-traffic. A month ago, Coljuegos and the Police of Cucuta seized 96 of these apparatuses. Several were installed in the transport terminal of this city. In Cartagena, they seized seventy-three.

In addition to laundering, there is a more worrisome hypothesis as to why mafias install thousands of these machines at a loss: a potential market is that of minors, who are also targeted by drug traffickers.

About the amount that this market moves there are no reliable calculations. But one fact can give an idea of its magnitude: since 2014, authorities have seized more than 11,000 slots. This year, there are 6,391. Its entrance of contraband to the country is another one of the chapters to establish. "What they are doing now is bringing them in scrap, or under the excuse of re-manufactured and have specialized sites to assemble them," said Colonel William Valero, deputy director of the Tax and Customs Police.

In Cordoba, the 'Úsuga' clan controls the illegal slot machine business. A section of the Police, the Gaula says that the gang forces the business owners to make space for their equipment, and when these are legal, it is usual for owners to pay vaccines between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos (COP´s) per day for each one. This year five criminals who were making these collections have been captured.

In the Eje Cafetero (Spanish name for a region of the country), the illegal group that monopolizes the illegal business is the dreaded band called “Cordillera”. In Medellin, in 2008 two officials of Etesa (entity replaced by Coljuegos) that investigated the mafias behind the slots, were assassinated. The 'office of Envigado' perpetrated the crimes and today, their heirs continue to profit directly or indirectly from what thousands of gambling machines produce in the communes of the city and in the municipalities of the valley of Aburra

In addition to nourish the coffers of criminals, these illegal machines bleed the health system, which has in gambling one of its main sources of funding. A year, the average tax generated by each legal machine reaches two million pesos (COP´s). And neighborhood business owners who are seduced by the idea of receiving some money by letting them install illegal machines, but actually they do not know that are playing with fire.