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Games and fun spin to an abrupt halt

The gaming machine wheels have stopped for the Spin City Club and all other game rooms in Hernando with the state ruling them still illegal.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published June 16, 2006

SPRING HILL - The game is finally over for the Spin City Club.

A June 6 letter from the State Attorney's Office informed Kathleen Moreland that her game room was in violation of the law despite changes she made to the machines.

"If upon receipt of this letter your business continues operation you will be subject to arrest and the machines subject to seizure," the letter warned.

So Moreland shut down again.

"I'm too disgusted to comment," she said Wednesday, referring questions to attorney Peyton Hyslop, who was unavailable for comment

When Moreland reopened her Spring Hill game room May 25, she said she'd brought her machines into compliance, but the State Attorney's Office disagreed.

Mark Simpson, the prosecutor handling the case, said Moreland was smart to close down voluntarily because she was within 24 hours of being arrested.

Now that the game room has closed, Simpson said there would be no charges filed against Moreland. That decision was left to Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway.

"If it had been left up to me, she would have been prosecuted. But in an abundance of caution it was decided to give her the benefit of the doubt," Simpson said.

The whole saga began Dec. 20 when the Sheriff's Office raided two game rooms, or video slot parlors, on Commercial Way. The 11 others in Hernando and Citrus closed voluntarily.

Prosecutors said the video slots were games of chance and thus illegal. They said the state was protecting seniors from losing their retirements on these penny slots.

Owners and game room players said this was just an inexpensive way for lonely seniors to have fun and the prosecution was more akin to persecution.

"They don't want us to have no pleasure," Reba Martin, 68, a Spin City regular, said in December. "They want you to sit on the couch until you die."

A protracted legal battle ensued, including five criminal cases in Hernando as well as civil suits in Citrus and Lake counties.

At the end of May and early June, the criminal cases were settled by plea deals that let the owners and operators of two game rooms plead guilty to misdemeanor charges.

Moreland never faced criminal charges because she closed down voluntarily in December. She reopened her game room May 25, the only owner to do so, and said business had never been better.

"It's a crazy business because we're the only ones open," she said.

But on the first day she was open, an undercover investigator tested the machines and found they did not require enough skill for them to be anything other than games of chance.

Simpson said the first person to tip him to the reopening, less than half an hour after the slots started rolling, was one of Moreland's former competitors.

"There's no honor among thieves," he said.

As for the future of the game room debate in Hernando, Simpson said he didn't know.

"I honestly don't know. I don't know if this is going to be the end or if someone wants to test the waters," he said Wednesday. "We're not going to tell you to open or not to open. But if you open, you open at your own risk. The plea offers for the next group aren't going to be like the plea offers for the first group.''

--Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified June 16, 2006, 08:49:42]