Casino.org report
Five video gaming machines were demolished by a backhoe earlier this month in Platte City, Mo. after they were ruled illegal by a local court. It marked the state’s first successful prosecution of a gaming vendor in such a case. But there remains a dispute about the devices.
Similar machines are still in use in Missouri. An estimated 14,000 “gray market” slot-machine-like games have popped up in bars, gas stations, restaurants, and truck stops throughout Missouri, says Robert Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law.
There could be as many as 20,000 of these unlicensed, disputed gaming devices statewide. Supporters of these devices say they are legal and are “no-chance,” because players can see if they will win or lose if they play the next bet.
Others say they are illegal. Many of these opponents want the state to enact new legislation. Among the opponents are operators of legal riverboat casinos.
“If the state does not take action, enforcement of these gray market devices is left to individual local prosecutors,” Anthony Cabot, Distinguished Fellow of Gaming Law at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, told Casino.org.
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Missouri Gray Market Gaming Devices Need More Regulation, Law Professors Say
