Gambling News from http://www.masslive.com/
HOLYOKE - License Commission Chairman Thomas N. Wilson said yesterday as a result of a recent City Hall meeting with State Police he anticipates license commissioners will no longer issue permits for video poker slot machines.
Wilson suggested the commission will soon act to "entirely ban the machines that are purported to be illegal."
Two weeks ago, Wilson, mayor Michael J. Sullivan, City Solicitor Karen T. Betournay and Police Chief Anthony R. Scott met with two State Police investigators who orchestrated May 3 raids on 15 area bars and clubs.
Police seized 38 video poker slot machines and $10,000 in cash. However, no criminal charges have been filed.
At the meeting, Sullivan said, State Police Lt. Thomas J. Murphy and Sgt. Michael Imelio "explained to us what makes one machine legal and another illegal."
Sullivan, a former bar owner who is familiar with the machines, said it is hard for a community to ban the machines if the extra meters that allow illegal payouts are inside the machine and impossible to determine without taking them apart.
Murphy and Imelio have said the state needs to update an archaic state laws that bans rigged machines, but only those with mechanical wheels - not the newer digital ones that have flourished since the 1990s.
Although there may be a gray area in the law, Murphy's organized crime unit has built criminal cases against some bar owners in Springfield during a series of 2003 raids.
And, based on the State Police raids last month here and in Springfield and Chicopee, the state Lottery Commission suspended lottery licenses for 11 bars and clubs snagged in the raids.
Earlier this week, the Lottery Commission announced it was reinstating seven of the establishments, but only after bar owners signed agreements to prohibit the video slot machines and any illegal gambling on the premises under threat of a lottery license revocation.
Among the affected establishments here were JP's Restaurant on Whiting Farms Road, and the Sandcastle Lounge and Pal Joey's on Northampton Street at the Kmart Plaza.
Machines were also removed from the Brian Boru bar on Commercial St., but they did not have a lottery license.
The lawyer representing JP's, attorney Aaron W. Wilson, said his client also signed an agreement with Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett to keep the video slot machines out of his restaurant.
Bennett has not responded to requests for comment.
But Chief Scott said the district attorney told him he would send letters to municipal officials throughout the county explaining which slot machines are illegal.
So far, only Westfield and Agawam have banned the machines outright. Chicopee license commissioners recently voted not to issue automatic amusement device permits, although alderman must vote to ban the machines outright.
During the recent City Hall meeting, Mayor Sullivan said, Lt. Murphy suggested some of the digital poker slot machines rake in as much as $10,000 a week. |
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