Missouri lawmakers face many questions about how they may deal with possibly illegal gambling machines in the state, including whether to regulate the machines.
Missouri Highway Patrol Lt. Roger Phillips, who is the assistant director of executive operations for the Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control, testified Thursday afternoon before the Missouri House's Special Interim Committee on Gaming that the patrol has received 145 complaints so far this year about "gray-game" or "pre-reveal" gambling devices.
Phillips said that's been enough complaints to require investigators to be temporarily pulled from other duties to assist the only two full-time staff who regularly investigate such complaints.
Stephen Sokoloff, general counsel for the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, testified he considers such gambling devices to be illegal because of how the machines operate, but the Missouri Supreme Court's opinion on a Platte County lawsuit against a gaming company will be needed to clarify the law - assuming the case is appealed and the Supreme Court ultimately decides to hear an appeal.
Sokoloff said he is aware of two other such cases in the state, but the Platte County lawsuit is the furthest along - though it may yet be 11/2-21/2 years away from a ruling by the Supreme Court.
There are an estimated 14,000 unregulated gaming terminals in the state - potentially diverting up to $50 million from the state's lottery, which is used to fund public schools and colleges.
Reports about possibly illegal machines in Mid-Missouri have included locations in Holts Summit, Fulton and Columbia, according to a list of complaints provided to the News Tribune by the Missouri Gaming Commission last month.
When asked by the House committee's chairman Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, where investigators are being pulled from to help investigate complaints about machines, Phillips said, "We are pulling them from where we can," primarily investigators from rural counties whose caseloads haven't been as severe.
Of the 145 complaints so far this year, Phillips said, all but about 24 had been investigated - leading to 92 criminal cases and 34 probable cause statements provided to prosecutors.
He said complaints also come to the Highway Patrol through agencies such as the state's gaming commission and the Department of Revenue.
Even if the Supreme Court were to definitively determine the machines are illegal and the Highway Patrol had enough people to investigate complaints, the committee wanted more information. It wants to know whether all the prosecutors in the state - given limited resources and possible political pressure not to crack down on a popular form of entertainment - would actually prosecute cases of illegal machines in locations such as convenience stores and trucks stops.
Matthew Roob, who is senior vice president of financial analysis for Spectrum Gaming Group, LLC - a gambling consulting firm - testified Alabama is a state that's gone the prohibition route, seizing and smashing illegal machines, though that's led to some lawsuits.
Roob said other states such as Georgia and West Virginia have pursued regulation.
He added other public policy interests in regulating machines, in addition to preventing diversion of state lottery sales, include ensuring machines are certified as honest and fair, that they are in appropriate locations and revenues are accounted for.
Ron Leone, who is executive director of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, testified the MPCA is interested in what types of private businesses would be allowed to keep the machines and where within those establishments the machines would be allowed to be if the Legislature were to pursue regulation.
Leone said broad-based legislation is desired - not limited to just truck stops or grocery stores, for example. Also, if people younger than 21 are allowed into an establishment, it's agreed that machines should be in a private room.
James Hahn, with the Missouri Elks Association, said commercial establishments such as convenience stores and truck stops should face the same kind of accountability that fraternal organizations have to abide by when fraternal or other community organizations have bingo licenses.
Hahn said commercial establishments have unfairly dodged the kind of scrutiny that organizations like the Elks have faced - when at the same time, Elks lodges are also being pressured to the point of threatened lawsuits by gambling machine vendors to operate machines that may be illegal.
Historian and former journalist Bob Priddy presented the House committee with questions to consider about different ways regulation might work and challenges that may be presented - whether under the authority of casinos, the state's gaming commission or its lottery commission.
The House committee on gaming was initially formed to study whether to allow sports betting and video gambling - which it's scheduled to look at in its remaining two meetings this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.