Missouri Attorney General Sues Five Businesses Over ‘Gray-Market’ Gambling Machines

A quintet of Missouri businesses were sued by the state’s attorney general Tuesday, with the top lawyer there alleging they are operating illegal video lottery terminals (VLTs) on their premises.

Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is accusing the owners of the shops — reported by the Missouri Independent to be Discount Spirits and Tobacco, Kennett Liquor and Tobacco, and Laura’s Mini Mart in Kennett; and Dixie Package and Swindle’s Quick Shop in Malden — of violating the state’s consumer-protection laws.

“When retail shops turn a blind eye to or facilitate illegal gambling, they are not only ignoring the law, they are putting our communities at risk,” Hanaway told the Independent in an emailed statement. “My office will hold any business accountable for profiting off unlawful activity, and we will do everything in our power to shut illegal gaming and gambling machines down.”

Additionally, the shops were hit with criminal charges by the county’s prosecuting attorney.

This action comes on the heels of Hanaway’s speaking to the state’s house budget committee, where she promised to put an end to the “gray-market” games that dot the state’s landscape. She said the machines involved plenty of “money laundering and banking” issues.

Her actions are markedly different from the state’s former attorney general, Andrew Bailey, who “pulled out of defending the Missouri State Highway Patrol in a lawsuit filed by an operator of gray-market games, Wildwood-based Torch Electronics, after a PAC funded by the company donated to his campaign,” according to the Independent.

One battle after another

The battle over the machines has been going on for more than a decade, with proponents claiming they do not constitute gambling. Furthermore, local prosecutors have mostly failed to file charges in cases brought to them and investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, according to the Independent. 

In fact, only one prosecution has yielded a conviction, a misdemeanor charge of possession of a gambling device.

Hanaway is seeking civil penalties against the shops that are housing the machines and a permanent injunction that would forbid them from ever offering any type of gambling. 

All this is going on against the backdrop of a debate in the Missouri House that would allow the games to become legal, being licensed and taxed by the Missouri Lottery. Similar legislation passed the House last year, but did not make it out of the Senate.