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Judge Reverses Decision, Makes Pre Reveal Games Illegal

June 19th, 2017 by Jake Stofan
A Circuit Court Judge has reversed his ruling on Pre Reveal Game Machines to reclassify them as illegal slots.
The ruling comes after the judge was asked to reconsider his decision by the Seminole Tribe.
The Seminole Tribe has exclusive rights to slot machines and banked card games like blackjack in Florida, except in two southeast Florida counties.
In return, the tribe pays a percentage of it’s profits to the state.
That exclusivity was  jeopardized over a court ruling that legalized machines known as Pre Reveal Games.
“These machines as we understand it are spreading rapidly,” said Barry Richard, a lawyer representing the Seminole Tribe.
The games play like slot machines with one exception, players can know ahead of time if the next game will be a winner.
Although players now the outcome of a game before they put their money down, they can’t know the outcome of future games.
And that’s where the gamble is.
“And nobody leaves a winning game on the machine so you always start with a losing game. And you’re playing a losing game even though you know it,” said Richard. “Why do you do that? You do it because you want the chance of winning the next game and you don’t know the result of the next game. That’s a slot machine.”
State regulators deemed the machines illegal, but manufacturer Gator Coin II challenged the state.
Circuit Judge John Cooper initially ruled the games were not gambling.
He reversed his decision Monday.
“Because the tribe is entitled to have no competition even from one machine. They’re paying over 250 million dollars a year,” said Richard. “That’s twice as much as the casino taxes from all of the parimutuels put together that have casinos in Florida.”
If the Seminole Tribe pulled out of its agreement with the state, it could have cost the state between 250 and 300 million dollars in annual revenue.
Two pre reveal game manufacturers declined to be interviewed before the court hearing.
Bars and gas stations currently operating machines in their businesses will have to cease with the new ruling.
Officials with Gator Coin II say they plan to appeal the decision.

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