Ark. Approves Free Climes
To SllIrl BellI PrecedeDI
CHICAGO-During the first two months
of the 1949 Legislative Year, when most
s tate legislative mills were grinding in full
force, only a very few measures had act-
ually passed through to become law_ Four
s tates apparently had actually passed some
kind of bill relating in some way to coin
machines: Arkansas, Idaho, South Dakota
and West Virginia_
One of the new laws may be considered
as inconsequential, the Idaho House Bill
54 which became Chap_ 31, Idaho Laws of
1949, to ban prophylactic vendors.
West Virginia al 0 passed H. B. 52 which
regulates the hours for pla-ying phono-
graphs in locations.
South Dakota has passed a law which
adopts a percentage tax plan for coin-op-
erated machines. The law is Page 87, 1949
South Dakota Session Laws, and provides
for a 1 per cent gross receipts tax on coi n
machines. The percentage idea has been
in use in Washington in it games licensing
system, and also Oklahoma tried a percent-
age tax plan on phonographs.
Arkansas, long pointed to as a state that
assessed reasonable fees on coin machines,
has a new law which will be precedent of
the mo t valuable kind for states that con-
sider licensing pin ball games. House Bill
139 became Act 67 in the state's laws and
it defines "a thing of value" as not includ-
ing "free games."
Arkansas thu becomes the first state to
take the step the amusement games trade
has long wished some state would take-
legalize free plays.
The meat of the new statute is in Section
2 which reads as follows:
"Sec. 2. Amusement games shall include
such games as radio rifles, miniature foot-
ball, golf, baseball, hockey, bumper, ten-
nis, hooting galleries, pool tables, bowling,
shuffieboard, pin ball tables, marble tables,
and other miniature games whether or not
it shows a score and not hereinafter ex-
cluded in Sec. 3 hereof, and where the
charge for playing is collected by a me-
During Twenty-Two Years
of Leadership
chanical device. The terms 'any money or
property,' or 'other articles,' or 'other valu-
able thing,' or 'any representative of any-
thing that is e teemed of value,' as used
in the anti-gambling statutes (Sections 3320
to 3324 inclusive of Pope's Digest) shall
not be expanded to include a free amuse-
ment feature such as tbe privilege of play-
ing additional free games if certain score
is made on a pin ball table and on any
other amusement game described in thi s
section."
Section 3 is mentioned and this part of
the new law specifies the usual ban on
gaming devices, as follows: "Nothing here-
in contained shall be deemed to legalize,
authorize, license, or permit any machine
commonly known as slot machines, Roscoes,
Jackpots or any machine equipped with any
automatic money payoff mechanism."
The amendment is another link in a
chain of coin machine legislation in Arkan-
sas that goes back to 193L The introduc-
tory statement to the new law gives a brief
history, thus: "An Act to amend sections
2 and 3 of Act 167 of 1931, as amended
by Act 137 of 1933, as amended by Act
201 of 1939, regulating the operation of
Amusement Game." In all that time, the
Arkansas Legislature has had a number ol
bills relating to coin machines, some of
them very unfavorable, but the State has
kept to the standard of very reasonable
license rates, and also to the standard of
setting limits on the license fees that can
be as essed by cities and counties. Ark-
ansas is also the only state that has ever
reduced a coin machine license fee.
The new Arkansas law suggests some
interesting sidelights on trends in legisla-
tive thinking. The wide enumeration of
various types of games, even to include
shuffieboard and targets, is for the purpose
of making the statute so broad that the
courts would be inclined to apply it to all
of these types and any similar types.
The statute al 0 adds the proviso, "and
other miniature games whether or not it
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shows a sc·ore and not hereinafter excluded
in Section 3 hereof, and where the charge
for playing is collected by a mechanical
device." That is a broad enough definition
to take in any new games that mi{!ht ap-
pear later. But it is much better than some
of the "broad definitions" that require
court tests to decide just what they mean.
The statute also places a broad defini-
tion on coin mechanisms by saying simply,
"where the charge for playing is collected
by a mechanical device." That is broad
enough to take in any form of coin op-
eration.
In legalizing free games, the statute op-
ens the way for use of free plays as a
legal award on all the types of games listed
in the broad definition. This may help to
pep up the play of some of tbese games
at a time when play begins to wane.
Interesting indeed are all the legal
phases listed in the statute which have
been used in legislative bills, laws and
documents to rule out free games as illegal.
Such phrases a "any money or property,
other articles, other valuable thing, any
representative of anything that is esteemed
of value," are variously used in anti-gamb-
ling statu tes and have been used over and
over again to strike at the use of free
games.
Free plays have been called "a thing of
value" so often by opponents of amusement
games that it is refreshing to have a state
law that says this hackneyed phrase does
not apply. The Arkansas law was approved
Feb. 10, 1949.
eMI Extends Legal
Bulletin Mailings
CHICAGO-Beginning with the January
24 issue of its Legislative Bulletin, Coin
Machine Institute has mailed its bulletin to
all members of the association regularly.
Dudley C. Ruttenberg, general counsel · of
CMI, announced that in the past the bulle-
tin had only been sent to members in those
particular territories that might be directly
interested in any legislation.
He said that at the recent CMI Conven-
tion it was decided to send the bulletin to
all members because operators everywhere
had shown interest in all kinds of legisla-
tion.
According to Ruttenberg, "The industry
has learned all too well that harsh legisla-
tion in one state may soon become a pat-
tern not only in other states but municipali-
ties as well. We at CMI feel that bringing
you up-to-date reports on legislative ac-
tivity all over the country is well worth the
additional expenditure of funds and effort
entailed. We wish we could send our bull~
tin to every operator in the country whether
a member or not. However, new member-
ships are coming in at an ever increasing
rate, which means constant widening of our
circulation. We urge operators to show the
bulletin to other operators who are not
members of CMI and to discuss the legisla-
tive matter reported with them. This in
effect will widen our circulation even fur-
ther and, more important, will result in
concerted legislative action. Non-members
can receive the bulletin regularly by join-
ing CMI today-and provide funds for even
further expansion of our activities."
Ruttenberg stated that coin machine
legislation has appeared in nearly all the
states and some of the bills have become
important and really urgent. He explained
that all comment in the bulletin sent out
by CMI must necessarily be very brief.
But that his office will be very glad to ex-
plain any detail to operators who may make
inquiries about pwposed bills.
COIN MACHINE REVIEW