My boss would like to know if the coin pushers or quarter slides are legal? Has anybody ever prosecuted a case involving these machines? These are the type of machines that you see at a State Fair or Dave & Buster's where you try to knock the quarters from tray to tray whereby you receive tickets for prizes. However, in our case, the winner receives currency.

[This message was edited by J. Lagomarsino on 04-26-06 at .]

I saw on tv last night that my office thinks those are illegal. Although the station I saw it on usually gets it wrong. You might try getting in touch with Tim Gallagher--he probably had something to do with that if it was true. Our switchboard is 214-653-3600.

In the view of at least one court, under the version of chapter 47 as it existed in 1993, "pusher" or "bulldozer" machines appeared to clearly be seen as gambling devices. See State v. Gambling Device, 859 S.W.2d 579 (Tex. App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1993, writ denied).

It's a duck.

We hit numerous 8-liner game rooms last month. We also hit numerous gas stations that had the quarter drop machines. We clearly view them as illegal and are pursuing those cases by way of final criminal convictions or 18.18(b)agreed orders.

Games of skill are not gambling. Inject chance, and it is illegal under 47.01(4)....but, does the machine you are talking about escape under 47.01(4)(B)? That is the fuzzy animla exception that Dave and Busters will cite to you....

I have heard that some of these machines have a sensor that detects when the quarter is dropped, which then causes the machine to slightly alter the movement of its "pusher." This would clearly inject an element of chance, making the game an illegal gambling device. Get the service manuals and see if they include any way to adjust the payout odds. Make the operator demonstrate that a skilled operator can do better than random coin drops. When I have challenged operators to do this, they always say, "Oh, never mind. We'll just take 'em out."

When we had a gambling prosecution unit, we dealt with numerous civil lawsuits by the same attorneys, questioning our interpretation of the law. In numerous depositions and in courtroom testimony, lawyers for the 8-liner interests would get our investigators to describe why the 8-liners were illegal, in their opinion. After that, they would ask why places like D & B's and Chuck-E-Cheese weren't being prosecuted? The answer was that based on our knowledge of the games in those places, they were games of skill and so the "exception" didn't apply. They would follow that up with, "What about the coin pushers? Those things are clearly games of chance." Then the investigator would point out we also needed complaints and invitations to investigate complaints, and we hadn't had any, and was this a formal complaint? That ended the question, but suffice to say, we agreed whole-heartedly that these machines are games of chance, and as they are being utilized all over north texas, offering cash prizes, they are illegal gambling devices.

I am not sure about the sensors described by my good friend Mr. Grace, but since the payout depends on the timing of a bounce of a quarter, I would characterize that as a game of chance.

P.S. James, we can discuss this in person next month!

Any change on this since '06 when this thread was started? Does everyone still agree they are illegal? Any more recent court decisions? Thanks.