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The slot machine spin

An attempt to cash in with arcade games that require "skill" deserves to lose.

By Times editorial
Published May 4, 2006

Spectre Gaming Inc. wants Florida sheriffs to believe that its slot machines are not really slot machines, and the argument goes something like this: Sure, the symbols spin around like slot machines and you line them up like slots, but you hit the button more than once, which means the timing requires true skill.

How's that for spin?

The distinction between chance and skill is not a marketing ploy but a legal one. Florida law bans arcade games of chance that pay off for the bettor, and voters have amended the state Constitution to allow real slot machines only at designated locations in Broward County. So Spectre thinks it can still cash in on the Florida gambling market with a machine it claims to be independently certified as meeting an "Application of Skill" test. Pushing button once apparently equals chance; pushing button twice equals skill. Spectre also avoids using the term "jackpot," preferring instead "Amusement with Prize."

In recent months, sheriffs in Pinellas, Hernando and Citrus counties have shut down similar machines, and last year Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed a bill that would have given the arcades a legal leg up in court. The arcade operators complain that their games are no more harmful than parimutuel wagering, the state lottery, gambling cruises and Indian reservation gambling houses. They're probably right, except that the other games are specifically allowed under state or federal laws. Their faux slots are not.

Sheriffs are being asked to play along with this game of corporate spin. But the only skill Spectre is bringing to the gambling arcade is entirely political in nature. Unless and until the law changes, these machines are losers.

[Last modified May 4, 2006, 07:20:21]