Payouts in cash make ‘fruit’ slots illegal

Manufacturers of the Tic-Tac-Fruit electronic games and the like aren’t fighting Gov. Ted Strickland’s edict to ban them in Ohio because they care about improving the skills of Ohioans in lining up the fruit on the video screens. The 50,000 machines all over the state are a goldmine with thousands of players lured by the cash payouts to the winners.

Does anybody doubt that if winners were given fruit — or a free library card — the Tic-Tac-Fruit machines would be gathering dust in some warehouse? That’s why the contention of the manufacturers and operators that these are games of skill is so much craps (as in barbut, of course.) With the skill an individual attains from playing these games, he could easily qualify to serve as the CEO of some Fortune 500 company, right? After all, lining up the fruit requires intelligence, commitment, instinct, brainpower and discipline.

Let’s get real. This is an end-around Ohio’s ban on any forms of gambling beyond the state-run lottery, horse racing and bingo. Ohioans have made it clear at the polls, not once but twice, that they do not support casino-style gambling. Last year, they voted down a constitutional amendment that would have permitted slot machines to be placed at the seven horse racing tracks and in two free-standing casinos in downtown Cleveland.

Gambling opponents

During his campaign for governor, Democrat Strickland joined other statewide officials, including U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, a former governor and former mayor of Cleveland, in urging the defeat of the amendment. The then congressman from Lisbon contended that the economic and social costs associated with casino-style gambling were too great a price for Ohioans to pay just to keep up with neighboring states that have opened their doors to slot machines and table games.

Thus, his recent executive order designed to stop what he and Attorney General Marc Dann described as a proliferation of illegal gambling machines came as no surprise.

Strickland authorized Dann, a former state senator from Liberty Township, to issue an emergency rule on the electronic devices that can be found in bars, storefronts and fraternal and private clubs.

In the past six months, the governor and the AG contended, the number of machines has gone from 20,000 to 50,000. Strickland dismissed the claim of manufacturers and operators that the machines are nothing more that skill-based games of amusement.

In June, the governor and the AG proposed a bill banning cash prizes from electronic tabletop machines and placing a $10 cap on the value of one-time non-cash prizes such as award tickets prize vouchers at venues such as Chuck E. Cheese’s, Dave & Buster’s or Cedar Point.

Leaders of the Republican controlled General Assembly said such legislation was unnecessary because there already were laws on the books and Dann should simply enforce them.

Court injunction

However, when the attorney general sent 700 letters to operators telling them they had three days to get rid of what he called gambling machines, manufacturers went to court and got an injunction. An appeals court refused to grant Dann’s motion for the injunction to be lifted. That means there will a legal battle. The holy rollers who led the fight against the casino-gambling constitutional amendment last year will undoubtedly weigh in with the argument that all forms of gambling mostly hurt those who can least afford to lose money.

On the other hand, a ruling on behalf of the manufacturers and operators of the slot machines may be to the state’s advantage. Here’s why: Given that these machines generate bucket loads of revenue, Ohio could levy a tax on what they take in — which would be substantial. Consider this: You can buy a machine for $5,000, and depending on where you locate it, can make up that money in a week. So says an insider who has studied this issue.

Ohio could also tax the winners, as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states do when a player’s winnings surpass a certain level.

But even if the governor and the attorney general succeed in banning the machines, there will still be places where you’ll be able to play — for cash. You’ll just have to find out where they are — usually nondescript buildings — and be able to give the password when you ring the bell at the steel-reinforced door. Just be prepared for some guy with a bent nose looking out of a bullet-proof window demanding, “What you want?”

“Mario sent me,” used to work at a joint on Market Street in Youngstown.