Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

Bllckgrollnd Idells In tie
Figbt OB JobBson Bill
When asked what would be good causes
for whi ch THE REVIEW could figh t for in
behalf of operators, a great variety of ob-
jectives were suggested as published in the
~p ril issue, page 18.
Taxes were suggested by many operators,
as would be expected. Many suggested that
TH E REVIEW should fight for a better repu-
tation for the Industry. Some suggested a
specific fight for the repeal of federal excise
taxes, whi ch was a timely.objective.
But whi le Congress was ge tting around
to the excise tax question , a still more
serious fight was being forced upon th e
amusement games trade. The first signs that
such a fight was in the offing seemed to ap-
pear in newspapers in January when a
meeting of representatives of about 14
prominent dailies met in Chicago and
pla nned a drive against so-called ra cing
news se rvices.
J This finally led up to the Johnson Bill
in the U. S. Senate and the widely pub·
licised h earings th at developed around it.
Th e bill and the movements th at led up to
it proposed a real fight, and whatever de-
cisions lllay be reached during th e present
month, the issues at stake are likely to be
a cause of a fight that appears agai n and
again.
.
While some of th e issues at sta ke are
too touchy for a trade paper to co nsider,
th ere are many factors in th e background
that should be considered by operators of
coin devices whether they use so-called
ga min g devices or not.
1. As published in earli er issues of THE
R EVIEW thi s year, th e whole si tuation h ad
th e usual competition of the bi g dai ly
newspape rs with th e so-called racing news
services that ca ter to bookies. This has been
frankly admitted by some publishers an d
th e competition h as been growin g for years.
The publishing of racin~ news and bets
has long been profitahle for stand ard, repu-
table newspapers, and everybody kn ows full
well that it grea tly encourages gam blin g
on the races.
2. As stated by the New Orleans I tem
recently, book ies h ave been cutting in 0 11
.legal betting at the race tracks for some
years "and have killed legal races." This
competition of the bookies has evidently
become very serious to the big race tracks
and th e ir complaints may have inspired the
origin al moves by such agencies as the FBI,
th e Justice Dept. and Congressional com-
mittees.
3. As has happened many times in the
past, when heat is about to be turn ed on
gamblin g on the races, th eir su pporters stir
up some oth er gamblin g issue to get th e
public atten tion . Thi's has happened time
and time again and for many years th e
goa t has usuall y been the "slot machine."
4. But the present national situation seems
to have developed from a different twist
an d "slot machines" have been dragged in
more as an incidental issue, because some
of th e big names in th e racin g news busi -
ness and bookie betting have lon g been
linked also with "slot ma chines."
The present fight seems definitely to h ave
originated in the stiff comp'etition between
the race tracks and their legalized gambling
and th e booki es with th eir ill egal gambling.
5: To get at the bookies meant getting at
th eir so ur?es of bettin g news - th e racing
news serVIces, and th e people who control
JUNE, 1950
them . And thi s is wh ere th e fi ght bega n
to get into deep water.
To get at the racing news se rvices mea nt
also that th e racing news of the average
newspaper would be quickly called in ques-
tion, and that is why newspapers appar-
ently early formed a group to get into action
at the beginning. On e of the bills in Con-
gress has proposed to ban gambling news
from the mai ls, and the New Orleans Item
ha s voluntarily offered to quit pub lishing
out-of-state racing news if oth er papers
would do th e sa me.
Th e matter of gamblin g news in th e mail s
began to get hot sometim e ea rli er when
some local postal authorities in certain
states decided to follow th e letter of th e
l(lw a nd ban papers with lottery news.
Some real fights on this issue had devel-
oped behind the sce nes and were naturally
kept quiet. But th e newspapers could see
what might happen if th e issue became
national. Th e question of th e mails and
racing news has been brewing for many,
many years and is nothing new-except that
a lot of fire had gathered at this time.
6. It must be kept in mind that the
Ju stice Dept. and FBI, in their investiga-
tions of rackets and big-time cr ime over
the co untry have in many ways, and in many
cities, for many years been coming into
contact with trails th at included some of
the so-call ed "slot machine czars." This
fa ct has been well-known for many years
by anybody who followed the reports that
were issued from time to time.
Whether men like J . Edgar Hoover and
others in high offices really want to destroy
the "slot machine industry," or simply want
to get at those " bi g names" they co nsid er
as leaders in rackets of one kind and an-
other, fr ankly it is hard to tell.
7. Whatever be the real motives behind
th e present crusade, th e facts are known
that bookie gambling pays mu ch more than
the "slot machine racket," but to get at
th e bookies always co mes back to th e fact
th at newspapers also supply racing news.
And politi cians and men in publi c office
ca n' t buck th e newspapers.
8. So, the time-tested method of finding
a sca pegoat may once again hit on "slot
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