No, adult arcades doesn't mean what you think it means (get
your mind out of the gutter, Aaron). Rather, adult arcades and rec (recreation
rooms) are the senior citizen equivalents of video game arcades. The elderly
patrons of these adult "arcades" aren't playing Doom or Pac-Man; instead,
they're playing video poker, slot machines and other games you'd typically find
in a Las Vegas casino. There's just one problem -- while gambling is legal in
Vegas and a few other regions in the U.S., it is not legal in Florida. And
therein lies the rub.
Florida, which boasts a tremendously large senior citizen population, has a
number of adult arcades and rec rooms. For years, these businesses would pass
themselves off as nothing more than a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for retirees --
indeed, they exploited an exemption to state gambling laws called the Chuck E.
Cheese exemption, which allows coin-operated games that require a level of skill.
In case you missed it, this issue gained national attention this week when an
adult aracade owner named Gale Fontaine, who was on trial in Florida for running
an illegal casino, was acquitted of the charges by a jury of her peers. Fontaine,
who owns the Tropicana Rec Room in Pompano Beach, Fla., is also president of the
Florida Arcade Association. Again, the FAA is not what you think it is. The
industry advocacy group has nothing to do with actual video games.
The state attorney's office in Broward County, Fla., brought the charges against
Fontaine as part of a statewide crackdown by Florida on the adult arcade
industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years. Why? Well, because they do
have slot machines, which are gambling machines, right?
Wrong. According to Fontaine's defense attorney and the FAA, the rec rooms don't
qualify because the slot machines "require an application of skill." A level of
skill? Come again? Anyone who has ever played any type of slot machine know
definitely that the only skill involved is the ability to press a button or pull
a lever. There's a reason that slot machines are called "one-armed bandits."
Yet somehow, the jury allowed Fontaine and the FAA to exploit a ridiculous
loophole big enough to drive a truck -- or a bus-load of senior citizens --
through it. Now other adult arcades like the Tropicana Rec Room will masquerade
under the guise of being a Chuck E. Cheese or other video game arcades.
A crowd of supports cheered the verdict and the now-free Fontaine. Protesters
who felt the state was unjustly persecuting elderly Floridians were shouting
"Right to play! Right to play!" -- even though, as common sense would dictate,
no such right exists. This is hardly fair, though it's understandable why a jury
and even some politicans would cave to the desires of the state's senior citizen
population and its formidable lobby. But it's upsetting for me, because while
the elederly in Florida get to circumvent the law and GAMBLE, which is illegal
in the state and also clearly addictive, real video gaming continually comes
under fire from experts and legislators who want to outlaw or excessively
regulate it.
There's an old saying: what's good for the goose should be good for the
granny.
Comments (1)
Clearly who ever posted this has never been in one of these arcades.
HOW i wish they were like slot machines.
First, the machines do not pay out. They issue tickets or credits like a Skee Ball machine. Then you trade those tickets in for stuff... ashtrays, bobbleheads, gift certificates at Outback Steakhouse, and stuff like that....no money.
Last time I checked, slot machines paid cash... though at a rate of only about 86% for every dollar put in.
Slot machines also just require, as the author implied, just sitting there and pushing a button. THESE darn machines require the player to make a series of decisions that can effect the outcome of the game.
Slot machines are controlled by a Random Number Generator (RNG); there darn machines have a predictable program. Some of the old farts who play them can tell you from the way the pictures line up what the next spin will be AND they can change it by "holding" or "freezing" certain symbols on the screen.
Last time I checked, slot machines would not do that.
Finally, SLOT MACHINES --even though they have a "penny" play really require $4.95 per spin in pennies. The machines require EIGHT CENTS to spin and the tickets you can win from any one game cannot exceed 75-cents in PRIZE VALUE (and remember no cash).
As a regular slot machine player, I can tell you --these machines are not EVEN slot machines; I wish they were. But they are not.
Only a goofball would think they were slot machines.
The truth is that the action against that granny was brought by a district attorney who had just recieved a HUGE campaign contribution from the owner of Gulfstream Race Track and Casino --which has 1,500 slot machines. Apparently he fears the competition from granny and her 50 glorified Skee Ball machines.
I just wish the "reporting" on these machines had been accurate and not a rant and rave about slot machines; about which, apparently, the previous author knows notthing.
Posted by John R. Cash | May 25, 2007 1:50 PM
Posted on May 25, 2007 13:50