Nov 12, 2008 6:30 pm US/Eastern
Authorities Plan Crackdown On Video Poker Machines
(KDKA)
Video poker machines themselves aren't illegal in Pennsylvania, but paying off winners is.
KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin went inside the illegal gaming business as police across the state prepare for an unprecedented crackdown.
With legal casinos opening all over the state, millions of dollars is being spent to shutdown the mom and pop video poker joints for good.
In North Versailles late last week, local and state police hauled nearly 40 video poker machines from several local businesses.
The State Gaming Control Board wants every business in the state with illegal video poker machines shut down and the men behind this business know it.
Tom owns hundreds of video poker machines in locations all over the region, that's not illegal, but what is against the law is the fact that all of the machines pay off.
KDKA's Marty Griffin talked with Tom, who will only be identified by his first name in this story.
"They're coming after us; we just don't know when they're coming after us and how they're coming after us."
The feds would call him an organized crime figure, a gambling kingpin.
Griffin: "Do you feel like you're an organized crime figure?"
Tom: "I feel like I'm an honest businessman, supporting my family."
Griffin: "Does it feel like an illegal business to you?"
Tom: "Never did."
Griffin: "You never felt like you were breaking the law everyday?"
Tom: "No, I never did."
You won't find any argument with that in thousands of bars, clubs and restaurants around the state where poker machines that pay off, pay the bills.
"You shut down the poker machines, you shut down a lot of the small businesses," said Tom.
Hush, the owner of a local bar, risks being arrested by taking KDKA's Marty Griffin inside the business to show what illegal poker machine money means.
"What's the Meadows, what's Wheeling Island? What makes me illegal and them legal?" Hush says. "Somebody needs to draw a line in the sand and tell me which side to stand on. It's not illegal."
You won't find much argument from customers, people like Eric, who plays just about every time he stops by for a drink.
"I've won up to a thousand and I've lost up to a thousand," Eric says
Here's how video poker pay-off works, just like Las Vegas, a player puts money in the machine ... player loses, money's gone ... player wins, bar pays off. The bar takes what the player loses, keeps half, typically two to five hundred per machine per week, and gives the rest to the man putting the machines in the bar. That's illegal.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala says he will enforce the law, have his investigators do their job, take out the machines illegal in the mom and pops.
State and local authorities are coming armed with $5 million in grants. The plan, to confiscate thousands and thousands of machines in the next five years, if need be sending illegal poker machine operators to jail.
But big operators like Tom say before you shut them all down, why not just tax them.
"The state would probably make $100 million in tax dollars," he says.
There has been a movement lately by local state leaders for that to happen. A group of lawmakers have proposed a bill, and County Executive Dan Onorato supports the prospect in theory.
But everyone admits it will be very difficult to pass a bill legalizing video poker, because the casinos have powerful and well-funded lobbyists, and they're not going to want any competition for your gambling money.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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