What exactly seperates video games (such as Mortal Kombat and even the skiball and claw-grabber games ``of luck and skill’’ :rolleyes: ) from video poker and blackjack? Is there a legal definition of which games have age restrictions on them?
I ask because video games often have an element of gambling about them: In the skiball game, the machine often dispenses tickets which can be exchanged for prizes. In the claw-grabber games, the whole point is to pay for chances to grab a toy. And then there’s the game that has a metal armature pushing up against a platter of tokens or coins, and the appeal is that you might force more coins off the platter than you’ve put onto it. All of those games could easily be considered gaming.
Well, Mortal Kombat and other such games don’t pay off in anything, except longer playing time.
Games that pay off with tickets, prizes, getting your quarter back etc. are indeed often subject to local gambling laws. But such laws differ from state to state, and indeed county to county.
This is incorrect. In most places gambling must constitute 3 elements: Chance, Prize, Consideration. If any one of those elements is missing, the activity is not considered gambling. “Chance” means just that. Games like ski ball are not considered gambling because they involve skill, not luck. This is also what covers other arcade games and games at carnival midways. Prize means that there is something of value to be one, whether it’s cash or a toy whistle doesn’t matter. Consideration means you have to pay to play.
Once again, if any elements are missing, usually it’s not considered gambling.
The pull tab contests at McDonalds is not gambling. Though it involves Prize and Chance, “no purchase neccessary” removes Consideration. It’s not gambling.
Ski ball is not gambling. though it involves Prize and Consideration, it involves skill rather than Chance. It’s not gambling.
Video poker IS gambling. It involves prize and consideration, and chance (the draw of the cards). So even though it also may include skill, it also includes Prize, chance, and Consideration. It is gambling. Get it?
In Japan, the immensely popular game of Pachinko (little ball bearings falling through rows of pins) has an interesting way of getting around the no-gambling laws. In the parlor, you can only win prizes from the game, anything from a CD to a bicycle or TV. Then you walk out the door to a little window around the side of the building or in another building. This guy will be happy to buy your CD for $100 cash.
I’ve only watched this happen, but never did it myself, because I could never win anything.
In a prior thread I hit this pretty solidly. Obeying the letter of the law while abusing the spirit with this type of establishment is begging to have vice camping out on your doorstep outside of legal gambling areas.
So what about video poker machines that dispense tickets? I’ve seen these in plenty of arcades. That’s gambling by the Chance,Prize,Consideration aspect, but you don’t have to be of the legal gambling age to play. Unless tickets don’t count as the Prize aspect…?
I have heard of any number of those “video poker” arcades that do the same thing, pretty much – you win “tickets” that can be exchanged for “prizes”, which the guy next door will cheerfully buy from you with “cash”. Hell, 60 Minutes did an expose on these practices, several years ago.
I suspect that skeeball and Chuck E. Cheese arcade games aren’t really worrying lawmakers, because as of this point in our history, we don’t seem to have anyone blowing the rent money or getting in debt to organized crime by playing “Whack-A-Mole”…
I’ve never actually seen a poker machine that dispenses prize tickets. So I can’t really comment on them.
I have seen about a zillion different arcade games that do dispense tickets, and everyone one of them, including skee ball, hinged on an some element of skill.
Also, I can only comment on how things work here in the Magical Land O’Cheese Registered Trademark. I don’t know the laws in any other state.
I know that in the jurisdiction I work part-time as a patrolman in, the District Attorney routinely sends plain clothes investigators to the fairs and carnivals that have midway games. They check for two things: if the game is winnable, and if it constitutes illegal gambling in anyway.
Believe it or not, the game that always get’s in trouble is that game where they have little plastic ducks floating in a kiddie pool.
You know the one: you pick a duck and it tells you if you won a small, medium, or large prize. The DA here insists that that constitutes an illegal lottery because the prizes are different. The game operators have 4 choices: close the game down, make all the prizes 1 size (thus eliminating “chance”) put a mirror at the bottom of the pool, forcing players to have to concentrate on what duck is reflecting what size (the DA insists that this is a skill, thus elimanting the “chance” element:rolleyes: ). The game operators last option is to continue as is and get arrested. (they always choose the mirror option:D)
I really don’t thing the FBI is going to get involved in a “pick a duck” game.
