Police have arrested the man behind one of Athens’s biggest illegal gambling rings in a raid that led to another 14 people, including a well-known singer, being caught at a game of poker that had a 200,000-euro pot.

Officers said yesterday that the arrests were made during a raid on an illegal gambling den in Kallithea, southern Athens. The main suspect, simply identified as KK, was known to police and suspected of running a wide gambling operation.

Apart from high-stakes poker games, the suspect also accepted bets of up to 20,000 euros in cash on sports events and had set up 25 computers on the premises for punters to play electronic slot machines.

A police source said that it was difficult for officers to gather evidence against KK as he never wrote down any of the bets that he accepted from customers.