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No chance for ‘risk-free’ slot machines in Kentucky, AG Coleman warns • Kentucky Lantern

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No chance for ‘risk-free’ slot machines in Kentucky, AG Coleman warns • Kentucky Lantern

The maker of a new “risk-free” gaming machine in Kentucky is hitting the pause button after Attorney General Russell Coleman said the machines are illegal under a ban enacted by lawmakers last year.

Prominent Technologies attorney Bob Heleringer told Lantern that the company strongly disagrees with Coleman’s recommendation but has instructed businesses with “non-risk” machines to turn them off while the legal challenge to the ban continues.

Slot-type gaming devices (called “gray machines” because of their murky legal status) have been found in many bars and gas stations across the state; the legislature is set to ban them in 2023 with a bill signed by Gov. Andy Beshear.

Opponents argue that the machines are illegal gambling, while proponents refer to them as “games of skill.”

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this year Manufacturer Prominent Technologies said its machines had been converted into “risk-free” games that comply with the ban. The machines tell the user whether their next game will pay off, and the company argues this removes the risk from using them.

But Coleman is a consultancy In a post published Tuesday, it was written that such games are illegal because the user still won’t know the outcome of the next game after the next. “Therefore, the game entices the player to continue playing based on the chance that the next game will result in a win that is more valuable than the current game payout,” Coleman wrote. “The hope that the next game will be the winner is the ‘element of chance’ that makes these so-called ‘Risk-Free Games’ illegal gambling devices. There is no safe harbor for these types of games in Kentucky’s gambling laws.”

Bob Helleringer

Coleman wrote in his advisory: Franklin District Court decision Local prosecutors who support the “gray machine” ban are free to investigate and prosecute any violation of the Commonwealth’s gambling laws, including laws regarding “gray machines.” That decision is being appealed by plaintiffs, including Prominent Technologies’ competitor Pace-O-Matic.

Prominent Technologies attorney Heleringer said the company notified Coleman’s office in January that it had uploaded “non-risky” games and that the company’s lawyers met with employees in Coleman’s office in August. Despite the disagreement between the two sides, he said the company would resolve the issues “in the legal arena.”

Heleringer ridiculed Coleman’s usage, noting that Coleman, in a 1918 court ruling, had likened “risk-free” gaming machines to slot-type machines that offered “usable chips” to users.

“Nobody is being fooled by anything,” Heleringer said. “If they make a conscious decision as an adult to play a game and that game tells them that the next play is not a winning play, that there is no winning move, at that point they can choose to take their money back.”