Judge limits confiscations

In Hubbard, police have already seized two machines.
VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORT
A judge's order prevents a state agency from confiscating Tic Tac Fruit amusement machines in bars but doesn't apply to local law enforcement agencies.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook issued a temporary injunction Thursday to stop state agents from seizing machines such as Tic Tac Fruit beginning Saturday, when bars were to have removed the video games. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 14.
The removal deadline, issued by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, followed an opinion from Attorney General Jim Petro earlier this month that the machines are illegal in Ohio because the games are not skill-based but instead "schemes of chance" that pay winners and guarantee profits to the machine owners.
Distributors and owners of the machines went to court, contending that they are legal because winning does take some skill.
In Tic Tac Fruit, a player inserts money and bets on the game's outcome, then uses a Tic Tac Toe grid to try to line up pieces of fruit in a row.
Local level
The judge's restraining order bars only state officials from removing the devices before the legal issues are sorted out. Local authorities may still confiscate them.
Youngstown Police Department Vice Squad Commander Lt. David McKnight was not available to comment Saturday. He told The Vindicator after Petro's opinion came out that the Vice Squad would notify all liquor establishments that the games are prohibited. He said police would begin inspections two weeks after the letters went out to make sure the games were gone.
Austintown and Boardman officials said after Petro's opinion that they were waiting for guidance from the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office.
Austintown Police Chief Robert Gavalier said Saturday that neither the Mahoning County nor the Trumbull County prosecutor's offices have issued guidance yet in response to a letter sent to them by the Mahoning Valley Police Chiefs Association.
Gavalier said the prosecutors are waiting to see the outcome of court action over the machines.
The Department of Public Safety won a state Liquor Control Commission ruling in April, according to Petro's office. The commission ruled that Tic Tac Fruit machines operated by a Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge in Pomeroy, Ohiowere electronic video gambling devices. FOE Aerie 2171 appealed the decision to the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, where the appeal is pending.
The safety department investigates violations of state liquor laws and rules.
The commission's April ruling contradicts a May 2005 Meigs County Common Pleas Court decision in a separate case, brought by the Village of Pomeroy, that Tic Tac Fruit machines were skill-based games, not gambling devices, Petro's office said.
A November 2005 decision by that court stopped the public safety department from confiscating machines. The ruling is in the 4th District Court of Appeals.
Removed
In the city of Hubbard, police have already confiscated two of the machines and pushed for the removal of two more that were then taken out of businesses in March.
Sgt. Bill Fisher said police in that case "talked to the prosecutor at length" about what to do. He said Judge Holbrook's injunction will not have an immediate effect on what Hubbard has done, but that Hubbard is interested in the court's action.
Other local law enforcement leaders could not be reached to comment Saturday.
Police in Stark County were planning to take action with Saturday's deadline. Alliance Police Chief Lawrence Dordea, president of the Stark County Police Chiefs Association, asked his fellow chiefs to hand-deliver an announcement to bar owners, telling them the machines must go.