Jim Rosica
In a stunning reversal, a Tallahassee judge on Monday decided he had gotten it “wrong the first time around” and said games known as “pre-reveal” are in fact illegal slot machines.
Circuit Judge John Cooper, however, was quick to say his change of mind was not influenced by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, but rather by further argument on how pre-reveal, or “no chance,” games actually play.
The Tribe’s lawyer had said that allowing the machines, which look and play like slots, violates their exclusive right to offer slot machines outside South Florida, imperiling the state’s future cut of the Tribe’s gambling revenue by “multi-billions of dollars.”
Whether pre-reveal games affect the Tribe’s deal is “a political issue,” Cooper said Monday. “My holding is not based upon whether (the Tribe) likes the ruling or dislikes the ruling.”
In March, Cooper issued issued a declaratory judgment that “pre-reveal” games weren’t slots. That was because players have to “press a ‘preview’ button before a play button can be activated.” If the outcome of the game is known, it’s not a game of chance, he said then.
But Barry Richard, the Tribe’s outside attorney, has previously argued Cooper misunderstood the game play: “The player is not wagering for the already revealed outcome, but rather on the next outcome, which is unknown.”
On Monday, Richard added: “Can anybody rationally believe the intent of the Legislature was to jeopardize (the state’s cut) … to allow these machines?”
Argument offered Monday dealt with the state law on slot machines, the nature of randomness, and whether the “unpredictability” of games of chance lies with the player or with the game.
“Once you walk up to the game, you see the outcome every time,” said Robert E. Turffs, attorney for Blue Sky Games, which designed the software that runs the games.
Cooper countered: “But I have no way of knowing or predicting the next time, is that right?”
He also used an example of professional basketball player LeBron James shooting free throws. “The ball and the hoop has nothing to do with” James’ free-throw percentage—unless the hoop changes size every time he throws, Cooper said.
The judge, in withdrawing his earlier ruling, said he had come to realize the game was a “series of plays,” including known and unknown outcomes.
Magdalena Ozarowski, attorney for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), said it’s the “later outcomes” of the game—not the one revealed to the player—that are unpredictable to the user. That’s what makes it a slot machine.
The case got started when DBPR agents found one of the games in a Jacksonville sports bar and told the proprietor the machine was an “illegal gambling device.”
The only way to remove the element of chance is to remove the pre-reveal software, Ozarowski added. Without that, you’d have a “box and a monitor.”
Kathey Bright Fanning, president of the Jacksonville-based Gator Coin II company that’s behind the machines, was in the courtroom for Monday’s proceeding. Afterward, she said she was “disappointed” with the judge’s turnabout.
“They’re wrong,” she said. “The Tribe is wrong.”
Cooper’s new decision will be “immediately appealable” to the 1st District Court of Appeal, he said: “Let’s call it a final judgment.”
4 comments
MICHAEL LAFROSCIA
June 20, 2017 at 12:28 pm
The judge is right and kathey Bright Fanning is wrong. The judge’s analogy was ok but it is more like this, you have a series of horse races and to play each one you must first see the finish first then bet and then watch the race in it’s entirety to be able to see the next game which the unknown. It doesn’t matter if you see the ending first or last on the present game. The point is that you must finish the present game to get to the future game which means you have to bet which is where the Judge got confused in the first ruling because he questioned why a player would bet on a loser. If players didn’t have to bet on the losers and only wait for winners to bet on then how would a company make money? The players would beat the game every spin. The players are forced to bet on the losers and hunt for the winners in future games..
Willie L.
June 21, 2017 at 5:49 pm
Not exactly true Michael, your last sentence I mean. I have a few of these machines in my establishment,and you are allowed to back out of any bet after the “preview”,so you are allowed to “hunt” for wins, but it doesn’t cost the player anything.I paid out a ton of money before I realized what was going on and yes it does hurt to see customers do that,but all you really can do about it is hope that you will have more customers that won’t try to hunt for wins and just play the games straight up….
MICHAEL LAFROSCIA
June 20, 2017 at 12:32 pm
The judge is right and kathey Bright Fanning is wrong. The judge’s analogy was ok but it is more like this, you have a series of horse races and to play each one you must first see the finish first then bet and then watch the race in it’s entirety to be able to see the next game which the unknown. It doesn’t matter if you see the ending first or last on the present game. The point is that you must finish the present game to get to the future game which means you have to make a bet which is where the Judge got confused in the first ruling because he questioned why a player would bet on a loser. If players didn’t have to bet on the losers and only wait for winners to bet on then how would a company make money? The players would beat the game every spin. The players are forced to bet on the losers and hunt for the winners in future games.. It plays exactly like a slot machine..
Eric Keaton
June 21, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Hey Kathy… Its all about innovation. LoL. C’mon.. Pre.Reveal slot machines? What a joke. Now, when the seminole built an instant bingo machine to look like a slot machine. Thats innovation. The seminole have yet to lose a lawsuit against Florida. Now who is right and who is wrong Kathy.?! Judge Cooper insists that his reversal wasn’t influenced by the seminole.. Yes it was.
I believe Judge Cooper thought long and hard about where his career was headed before he put that pen back in his hand. He would have been the butt of all dumb judge jokes had he lost hundreds of millions of dollars for Florida based on misguided ideas about ‘sticking-it-to-the-tribe’..
A complete lack of innovation is what almost brought florida back into US Supreme Court. Whats that thing about not counting chickens until they hatch.? Hey Kathy, you want some innovation.? Take a look at what Hard Rock International is doing across the planet.
A poison apple is a poison apple. -Judge Hinkle
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