‘Slots’ are AG’s responsibility

When Gov. Ted Strickland signs into law a bill aimed at ending the obvious trickery gambling interests have employed to negate the refusal by Ohioans to allow an expansion of gambling, enforcement will, first and foremost, be the responsibility of Attorney General Marc Dann. Local sheriff’s and police departments do not have the manpower or the financial wherewithal to conduct the statewide crackdown of stand-alone establishments, bars and private and social clubs that will be necessary.

In August, Dann told Vindicator writers that local law enforcement agencies will be encouraged and supported by his office to use the criminal statutes to go after violators.

He said he will make available investigators, surveillance equipment and lawyers to build cases and also will pay for expert witnesses for court cases.

And, he offered this observation that we expect will drive the attorney general office’s campaign: “If it looks like a slot machine, if it sounds like a slot machine, if it pays out cash, it’s a slot machine in Ohio. Calling it something else … will no longer be tolerated.”

The gambling interests have been calling it something else — games of skill — and have been raking in the money. Dann’s office estimates that 50,000 so-called games of skill, such as Tic Tac Fruit, are generating more than $100 million a month.

The bill that the House and Senate passed and the governor is expected to sign this week reaffirms what the voters of Ohio said at the ballot box: We do not want casino-style gambling.

Skill, not chance?

However, manufacturers of the games that resemble slot machines used a 1983 law to flood the state. They said Tic Tac Fruit and the like required skill and not chance for players to win.

And they were buoyed by court rulings that blocked the governor and the attorney general from applying the 1983 law against bars, private clubs and other businesses that have the machines. Judges said it was up to the General Assembly to tighten the law.

That has now been done.

The definition of what constitutes a legal skill machine has been tightened, cash payouts will be banned and prizes worth more than $10 will be prohibited.