The Ohio Casino Control Commission is considered new regulations that will crack down on skill game operators that pay cash prizes from machines that are considered by state authorities to be illegal slot machines. Operators of any machines that offer prizes from machines will be required to get licenses.
About 7,000 machines would be impacted by the new regulations. Places that have them include establishments such as Magic Mountain, Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Busters.
However, the Commission is actually targeting up to 800 fly by night operations where patrons play the machines and are paid in cash, rather than prizes.
Matt Schuler, executive director of the commission, said they weren’t after Magic Mountain, et al. “In order for us to be able to go after illegal casinos, we have to license everybody,” he said. Operations that offer merchandise as prizes won’t have to change what they do, he said. However, the prizes are limited to $10 in value.
Under the new rules operators who pay out in cash can be charged with a felony and could go to jail for up to a year and pay a $2,050 fine.
Ohio law enforcement officials and state gaming regulators have been laboring for years to fight such operators. Several years ago they shut down internet arcades, only to see them reemerge as “skill game” operators.
