It's been a bad week for the manufacturers of so-called skill-based games such as Tic Tac Fruit and Match Um Up.
First, Gov. Ted Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann announced Tuesday a proposal that would take all the fun out of the machines: no more cash payouts, no prizes worth more than $10 and no annual winnings of more than $600.
These rules — which would require legislation from the General Assembly — would go a long way toward controlling the thousands of skill-based gaming parlors cropping up across Ohio, they said.
Then on Thursday, House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, criticized the proposal as not going far enough.
He sees the games as illegal, plain and simple.
"This would legalize all those machines in every neighborhood in the state. I don't believe that they're legal right now, don't believe they should be legal, and I don't know why we would pass any legislation that would make them legal," Husted said. "How about if we just eliminate them?"
Ohio Roundtable President David Zanotti agrees with Husted, and said Strickland and Dann's proposal would legally recognize the machines.
The Roundtable, an anti-gambling group in suburban Cleveland, called on lawmakers to more clearly define slot machines, skill-based games and games of chance.
If prizes are limited, the skill-based games will disappear overnight, said Dann spokesman Leo Jennings III.
Adults play them for money, not for a chance to win a kewpie doll, he said.
Jennings estimated there are 15,000 to 25,000 such machines statewide.
It's difficult to tell the difference between a slot and a skill-based machine.
Dann announced May 22 that his office would test skill-based machines to make sure they met certain protocol and then seal them before manufacturers could distribute them to bars and parlors.
But when the gaming manufacturer balked at publicly releasing the state's analysis, Dann backed away from the deal.
Zanotti criticized the deal, saying it would illegally re-write Ohio law and create a huge administrative burden for the attorney general's office.
Strickland press secretary Keith Dailey said: "The governor's goal is to stop expanded gambling. It's my understanding skill-based games are already legal. He is open to the speaker's or anyone else's ideas on how to accomplish that goal."
First, Gov. Ted Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann announced Tuesday a proposal that would take all the fun out of the machines: no more cash payouts, no prizes worth more than $10 and no annual winnings of more than $600.
These rules — which would require legislation from the General Assembly — would go a long way toward controlling the thousands of skill-based gaming parlors cropping up across Ohio, they said.
Then on Thursday, House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, criticized the proposal as not going far enough.
He sees the games as illegal, plain and simple.
"This would legalize all those machines in every neighborhood in the state. I don't believe that they're legal right now, don't believe they should be legal, and I don't know why we would pass any legislation that would make them legal," Husted said. "How about if we just eliminate them?"
Ohio Roundtable President David Zanotti agrees with Husted, and said Strickland and Dann's proposal would legally recognize the machines.
The Roundtable, an anti-gambling group in suburban Cleveland, called on lawmakers to more clearly define slot machines, skill-based games and games of chance.
If prizes are limited, the skill-based games will disappear overnight, said Dann spokesman Leo Jennings III.
Adults play them for money, not for a chance to win a kewpie doll, he said.
Jennings estimated there are 15,000 to 25,000 such machines statewide.
It's difficult to tell the difference between a slot and a skill-based machine.
Dann announced May 22 that his office would test skill-based machines to make sure they met certain protocol and then seal them before manufacturers could distribute them to bars and parlors.
But when the gaming manufacturer balked at publicly releasing the state's analysis, Dann backed away from the deal.
Zanotti criticized the deal, saying it would illegally re-write Ohio law and create a huge administrative burden for the attorney general's office.
Strickland press secretary Keith Dailey said: "The governor's goal is to stop expanded gambling. It's my understanding skill-based games are already legal. He is open to the speaker's or anyone else's ideas on how to accomplish that goal."
No comments:
Post a Comment