Bregu then calmly waited outside for the police to arrive and arrest him. Witnesses in Bar Madonnina, in the sleepy village of Fontaniva, near Padua, said the father-of-two was a regular on the slot machines and had spent several hours feeding coins into them, complaining and muttering that he had lost 5,000 euros in two weeks. The owner of the bar, who declined to be named, said: "He comes in here all the time to play the machines.
"He's had some wins, but he spends a lot of money. He is a laborer and only works every now and then. He's normally a very quiet man. He just walked in very calmly with an axe and smashed all the machines. There were several customers by them at the time and they were terrified. Luckily no one was hurt, but the machines are all broken. It's going to cost me to replace them and I will be losing customers as when people came in they would always order something from the bar."
Captain Marco Stabile, of the local Carabinieri police, said: "It must have been a very frightening episode for those in the bar, but he was very calm afterwards and arrested immediately by my officers. He said he had lost 5,000 euros on the machines and was so angry he just went home got the axe and decided to vent his frustration on them." Bregu was immediately sent for trial at a local court and jailed for six months for criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon. Italian health officials have reported a rise in slot machine addiction as arcades spring up across the country.
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