Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway defended her office's campaign to remove slot-style gaming machines from bars and gas stations, as two lawsuits over the enforcement effort move through the courts. A hearing in one of them is set for 12 August in Cole County circuit court.
Plaintiffs say the attorney general's office pushed retailers to pull the machines by threatening criminal prosecution and the revocation of licenses, without giving operators a chance to respond. Hanaway rejects that reading. The machines violate Missouri law, she says, because they are games of chance: 'If you play on this machine and cannot change the outcome, it is a game of chance, and that is prohibited in Missouri.'
The office has reached agreements with several of the largest machine operators for a voluntary withdrawal. Working with the state highway patrol, it also seized machines under warrants in about 10 counties. Hanaway said businesses under investigation go through the same legal process as any other criminal case, and that offering or advertising illegal gambling is a crime under state law.
The campaign reaches into a grey part of the market. Machines in bars and at filling stations were presented as amusement devices but worked as gambling terminals with payouts. For operators whose business rests on them, the choice is a voluntary exit or the risk of a criminal case.
