In a lawsuit recently filed against the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol and Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, Torch Electronics claimed the state’s crackdown on illegal slot machines is a campaign of “harassment and intimidation.” Torch officials allege state law enforcement exceeded its authority by removing Torch machines from convenience stores, including Warrenton Oil, which joined the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states, “These government officials continue to threaten to remove Torch devices based solely on their own incorrect interpretations of Missouri gambling law. As such, judicial intervention is necessary to prevent the department and the highway patrol from exceeding their authority by continuing to remove Torch amusement devices from convenience stores.”
Meanwhile, the Missouri Senate recently debated a bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz that would give the Missouri Gaming Commission the authority to shut down the machines. Schatz’s bill also would revoke the liquor license of any businesses found to be allowing the machines to operate on their premises. “I just want them to stop violating the law,” Schatz said.
Attorney Charles Hatfield, representing the plaintiffs, said the proposed law would put Torch out of business.
An estimated 14,000 of the machines currently operate throughout Missouri. The state gaming commission said they are gambling devices, which are not allowed outside of licensed casinos. The state highway patrol also considers them to be illegal. But Torch officials said the machines are legal because they reveal the outcome of the wager before the spin of the reels. Therefore, the machines are legal games of chance.
State Senator Dan Hegeman, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said since the machines operate outside the law, no consumer protections are in place. Also, they’re not taxed, so public education does not benefit. “I’m passionate about getting after these illegal machines who are stealing money from our kids for their own personal benefit,” Hegeman said. “It makes me mad. It makes me upset. They need to be taken out. They need to be destroyed. They need to get out of the state of Missouri.”
Last year, Hegeman earmarked $150,000 in Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s budget for pursuing illegal gaming machines around the state. Schmitt declined to spend that money until a case involving illegal gambling machines in Platte County was resolved. That happened last month, when Kansas-based Integrity Vending was found guilty of promoting gambling in the first degree and was ordered to pay a fine. Integrity Vending officials said they will not appeal the ruling.
Schmitt’s office said the case proved local prosecutors should handle cases involving the illegal machines. But Hegeman said if the attorney general doesn’t spend the allocated funds, “we will probably make an adjustment to that. If we give them the resources to do that, and they don’t, then we will find something else to do with it.”
Schatz commented, “I heard for two years that we need to wait for the Platte County case. As soon as that is adjudicated, we’ll take action. Well, that case is resolved.”
