Florida man charged with making his own slot machine tokens

Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 | 4:46 a.m.

Seth J. Bergen, 43, of Boca Raton, Fla., was arrested Saturday after State Police detectives watched him use counterfeit $10 tokens in slot machines, according to John Peter Suarez, director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

When they searched his vehicle, the detectives found cocaine, token-manufacturing equipment and more than $5,000 worth of bogus $5 and $10 tokens similar to those used in Tropicana, Harrah's Atlantic City, Showboat Casino-Hotel and the Sands Hotel Casino in Atlantic, Suarez said.

They also found tokens similar to those used previously at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and at unnamed casinos in Louisiana Mississippi.

Bergen was charged with theft by deception, cheating at slots and cocaine possession.

The U.S. Secret Service, which searched Bergen's home Saturday, charged him with copyright infringement - for using the casinos' trademarked logos without their permission - and racketeering.

He was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Camden and was being held Monday on $20,000 bail.

Bergen had been sought since the discovery of the initial counterfeiting here last May.

"Since then, we've been trying to determine who it was. And we did," said Katherine Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Division of Gaming Enforcement.

She said authorities believe he was acting alone.