State Reconsidering Position on Slot Machines

Washington State has made slot machines illegal, and they have been – this is nothing new. However, tribal casinos are allowed to have what look like slot machines, but in reality they are tribal lottery system terminals. Not that the tribes don’t want full on Class III slot machines, they do, but they are not permitted.

But that doesn’t stop people from trying to come up with a legal slot machine. They want something that plays like slots and pays out like slots, without actually being slot machines. Pull tabs and pull tab dispensers are permitted, which means it looks just like a slot machines, but it reads pull tabs and puts result on video screen. It is called the Gold Crown machine.

They have a new machine called the Video Interactive Play machine which is basically the pull tab machine, only better. This one has spinning reels that you see on the screen and if they line up you win. The machine was created by Jay Gerow and his company, but Gerow thinks that there has to be a better way they can do it. Gerow wants to add a cash card to the game.

Customers would buy the card which would activate the game. If you won the money would go on the card, if you lost it would be deducted. Gerow thought it was the same pretty much as what they had, but the commissioners said that it wasn’t and ruled them illegal. Gerow sued and won, with the judge saying that cash cards are legal under state gambling law. The judge also said that this was not an “expansion of gambling” in the state.

Not only that, but the commission had to pay Gerow’s legal fees as well. So, in response, the Gambling Commission is taking steps to change their rules to make it illegal – by making all pull tab machines illegal. This will not affect the tribes, just the little guy.

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