April 21, 1999
Legislature targeting
eight-liners as gambling devices
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUSTIN--The Texas Senate passed a bill--and a House committee held public hearings on its companion legislation--to close the legal loopholes that have allowed operation of illegal video slot machines in some Texas counties.
___Introduced by Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, and Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, the bills clarify the state penal code definition for "gambling devices," drawing a distinction between games of chance and amusement games in which skill is the main requirement to win.
___Sponsors said the bills are designed specifically to give law officers another tool for prosecuting operators of video slot machines, commonly called "eight-liners."
___The Senate bill was amended by Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, and Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, to include a provision allowing amusement machines at bingo halls to award bingo cards as prizes and those at racetracks to give out pari-mutuel betting tickets.
___Weston Ware, citizenship associate with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, said he was "not happy" with the amendments. However, the amendments do not dilute the effectiveness of the bill, he said.
___In a three-hour hearing before the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, Ware joined representatives of Texans Against Gambling, law enforcement and family amusement operators in testifying in favor of HB 1690. The bill was left pending in committee.
___"It is a tragic mistake for government to allow any group to flaunt the law," Ware said. "There never has been any question that the so-called 'fuzzy animal' exemption was not intended to allow the operation of slot machines in Texas."
___The "fuzzy animal" exemption allows amusement machines to distribute prizes of minimal value, such as small toys and stuffed animals. However, some operators have tried to stretch the "fuzzy animal" exemption to include not just trinkets, but vouchers that can be redeemed for valuable merchandise.
___The purpose of the current legislation is to prevent such rewards by more clearly distinguishing between games of chance, to which the "fuzzy animal" amendment would not apply, and games of skill, to which it would apply.
___Law enforcement classifies eight-liners as illegal gambling devices because they share the same characteristics, Ware said.
___"We are strongly opposed to government allowing forms of commercial gambling which result in high levels of addition, bankruptcy and financial ruin, crime and political corruption," he said. "Allowing video slot machines free rein in Texas would be a public policy disaster."
___Opposition to the bill came primarily from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Tigua Indians and the Amusement and Music Operators of Texas, an organization representing business owners who distribute and operate eight-liners.
___Jim Warden, past state commander for the VFW, argued that banning eight-liners in VFW halls would damage the organization's ability to raise money for charitable causes and community projects.
___"This is not right," he said. "This is not the America we fought for."
___However, Richard Blankenship, communications director for Texans Against Gambling, countered by saying the VFW members who testified in opposition to the eight-liner ban were not representative of veterans in general.
___"I don't know who these VFW guys represent, but they don't represent my father (a World War II veteran) or my brother (a captain in the U.S. Navy)," Blankenship said. "They don't believe ripping people off with illegal gambling machines and supposedly donating the proceeds to charities is an honorable thing to do.
___"I think the veterans are above that. I believe the vendors who have placed the illegal slots in VFW halls are using the veterans and put them up to this ... .It's really not the veteran. It's the vendor."
___Kevin Templeton, a former vice investigator with the Houston Police Department who had appeared as an expert witness testifying against eight-liners in the past, appeared before the committee representing the Amusement and Music Operators of Texas.
___Keel, a former prosecutor, grilled Templeton like a hostile expert witness for the defense. He questioned how a former "sworn officer of the law" in a metropolitan police department's vice unit could make his services available to operators of illegal gambling devices for what Templeton acknowledged was $100 an hour.
___Templeton asked the lawmaker if he was accusing him of being corrupt.
___"Your actions speak for themselves," Keel replied.
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