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.......... Rhode Island state police charged a Smithfield tavern owner and
his employee with operating an illegal electronic poker game and paying off
in free beers, in mid-September. Police said the video games have cropped
up in bars and private clubs in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts
in recent months and they are illegal games of chance. The authorities cite
a distinction, however, between the "gray area games" and such coin-ops as
pinball and amusement video. But with the card games, a number of bar and
club owners allegedly pay off winners with drinks or money.
(Free games are
also illegal in Rhode Island) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.......... A reversal in the trend of local rulinqs against game rooms catering
to youth was seen in Ohio in late August. A Bellefontaine woman who opened
a coin-op arcade was cited by police for permitting youths under 18 to play
the games without a parent present, in violation of the city's long-standing
pool room ordinance. A municipal court judge ruled in her case that the local
law is "unconstitutionally vague and broad, leading to the liklihood of
uneven enforcement." The judge found no relationship between public health and
safety and the total prohibition of all minors' coin-op play of any kind ....... .
.......... But in Independence, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, and other
localities of that area of the Midwest, increasingly stringent regulations
on game rooms were reported. In Kansas City, for example, an arcade operator
must pay a $50 fee for each coin-op amusement device to the city. An arcade
owner there must go through a licensing process similar to that imposed on
pool hall or massage parlor owners, but not as stringent as that required for
a liquor license, according to the Kansas City Times in a recent article ....... .
.......... Banner Specialty/Philadelphia announced recently that it has added
Exidy and Nintendo product lines. Within recent months the distributorship
has also expanded to handle the products of Centuri, Stern/Seeburg, Pacific
Novelty, and others in the coin-op amusement business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.......... The third annual Gaming Conference for that sector of the coin industry
will be held in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria on Thursday, October 29.
Scheduled guest speakers will include G. Michael Brown, director of the New
Jersey Division of GamingEnforcement; Richard W. Bunker, chairman of the Nevada
Gaming Control Board; and Saul F. Leonard, a partner in Leventhal & Horwath,
organizers hosting the conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.......... Stern Electronics of Chicago has confirmed that it will open a production
plant in the Republic of Ireland, in Limerick, the U.K. trade press reported.
As well as videos, Stern/Seeburg jukeboxes may be produced there, a company
official said. Stern joins Bally, Midway, Atari, and Exidy among American
companies now staging European sales drives from an Ireland manufacturing
base plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.......... Atari announced that its coin-op video Centipede will be the official
game on which all players will compete at the Atari World Championships to be
held in Chicago on October 29 through November l. Winners will rise from
local-level competition and be given entry certificates for the Chicago
competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.......... It is reported that the government of The Netherlands will legalize
slot machines and other coin-operated gaming devices in the near future.
Such
machines are already in wide use in that country, but without cash payout
features, according to gaming trade press reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
PLAY METER, November 15, 1981
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