Ohio’s Casino Control Commission is scheduled to release new regulations on April 23 that will require licensing of games of skill.
Such games are generally recognizable as “claw machines” where players can try to grab prizes and arcade games that award tokens or tickets. The new rules will simplify things for law enforcement trying to decide if businesses that employ the games are acting within the law.
The legislature three years ago put such games under the commission’s umbrella. During 2017 the commission developed regulations and license fees.
The regulations define such games as being based on the skill of the player—not chance. That by itself differentiates the Buckeye state from other jurisdictions. The prizes are closely defined too. They cannot be cash, gift cards or plays on games of chance, lottery tickets, firearms, tobacco or alcoholic beverages, among others. They are limited to no more than $10 in value, although the prizes can be combined to get a prize valued more than that.
Ohio law enforcement has been trying to crack down on illegal games and the businesses that harbor them—without harming legitimate businesses—for years now. But like an extended game of whack-a-mole the games and fly by night businesses, proliferate.
To help the public differentiate between legal and illegal games, the commission has scheduled 11 seminars throughout the state until April 13.
