Judge: State can’t ban gaming machines

COLUMBUS (AP) — A judge refused to lift a restraining order Friday that blocks the Ohio attorney general from enforcing a state ban on a pair of bar games that are similar to slot machines.

The decision by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook is the third in a series of recent legal defeats for state Attorney General Marc Dann, who has joined Gov. Ted Strickland in trying to use executive power to stop the games from entering the state.

The two state leaders overstepped their authority by issuing an emergency ban on Tic Tac Fruit and Nudgemaster video games, Holbrook said in the ruling. The games rely primarily on player skill, not luck, he said.

The decision means Dann cannot prosecute business owners who have the games in their establishments.

Dann’s office immediately appealed the decision.

Eric Yavitch, an attorney for Ohio Skill Games, which makes Tic Tac Fruit, said it was another victory for the gaming industry.

“Marc Dann thought he was turning a corner and instead he hit a brick wall,” Yavitch said.

Ohio passed a law in 2003 that banned slot machines, but allowed “skill-based amusement machines” whose outcomes aren’t dictated “largely or wholly” by chance. Court interpretations of the law have led to complex distinctions between skill and chance that Dann contends have made enforcing the law nearly impossible.