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Posted by: Gil

Troopers take slot machines
Thursday, December 02, 2004
By STEPHANIE BARRY and CAROL MALLEY
Staff writers


SPRINGFIELD - Once a mainstay in city bars, video slot machines may have breathed their last gasp after state police confiscated about 10 from local watering holes Tuesday
While law enforcement officials remained mum on the sweep, one bartender said state police rolled up to the Regal Beagle in Indian Orchard with nine machines in the flatbed.

"They came looking, but we don't have anything like that," the bartender said yesterday in reference to the slot machines.

Massachusetts State Police organized crime investigators, who confiscated more than 150 illegally rigged video slot machines in 2001, would not comment yesterday.

City police said they had no idea the machines were taken, or in some cases, removed by bar owners, who said they were warned by state troopers a week earlier to get rid of the games.

"They came in here with their guns and badges and a lot of attitude so we did what they told us," Roger DeRosier, owner of Mr. D's Sports bar at 578 Main St. said yesterday of the machines he yanked voluntarily. DeRosier said he believes the machines are legal because they don't pay out any money.

State police trooper Michael Imelio has led the charge to eradicate the machines from local cities, saying they are a multimillion-dollar business that feeds off gambling addicts. In March, he and a handful of other investigators gathered up the 150 machines they seized three years ago, scooped them up with a bulldozer and crushed them in a Dumpster.

They were seized as part of a gambling crackdown that netted more than 20 indictments.

At the time, Imelio said state police found each machine contained money and an illegal metering system to log revenues and payouts, despite bar owners' protests that the devices were just for fun. Bar owners historically have split thousands in profits with the distributors, he said.

"Why would someone even put $1 in one of these machines to watch it spin? It isn't Pac-Man," Imelio said in March. He declined to comment yesterday.

Another bar owner, who declined to give her name, said state police also came to Potbelly's in Indian Orchard, which she said she has owned for a year. They took her machines with scant discussion and no warrant, she said.

"They did come about a week earlier and told me to get rid of the machines because they were illegal. I had planned to get rid of them, but just hadn't gotten to it yet," the woman said yesterday, adding that she had paid off $1,500 in back taxes (inherited from the previous owner) for the machines just months earlier.

The city charges business owners to license the machines; the licenses are generic and do not detail the sort of machines they permit, said City Solicitor Patrick J. Markey, adding that he supported purging the machines from city bars.

"We applaud anyone who takes illegal machines out of any business in the city," Markey said yesterday.

One of the bars state police visited is owned by the wives of two officers with the Springfield Police Department.

Tina Efantis, a corporate officer of the Boulevard Tavern at 664-666 Page Blvd. and the wife of Arthur J. Efantis Jr., said that there were slot machines in the bar when she took over. She said she removed them when the state warned her they would seize them.

Tina Efantis is listed on state records as co-owner of the bar along with Lisa Santaniello, wife of Vincent Santaniello.

Owners of two other bars visited by state police, Alibis in the Acres and Fat Arthur's on Page Boulevard, did not return calls for comment yesterday.

Stephanie Barry can be reached at sbarry@repub.com Carol Malley can be reached at cmalley@repub.com
http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/re...7125106760.xml

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Posted by: Foxracingmtnridr

well then they should go over to goodtimes in somerville and take all the games out of there too. Especially that DDR game at $1 a play with the thing playing all day long they must make a ton of cash with it. Also take out the games that give you tickets that's a pay out isn't it? I don't get how they can say the machines are illegal if they don't pay out anything.

Scott

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Posted by: ghostrider

SAPD

Are you Kidding, Would you go to bar and place a buck in a Machine and watch it spin?

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Posted by: Foxracingmtnridr

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostrider @ Thu 02 Dec, 2004 SAPD Are you Kidding, Would you go to bar and place a buck in a Machine and watch it spin?

They are those video casino machines right so if you put money in you keep playing if you win. I'm just saying it's the same as video games if you aren't winning something.

Scott

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Posted by: RPD931

SAPD,

I believe the article indicates that some of the establishments ARE manually giving out payouts.

Article:

Quote:

At the time, Imelio said state police found each machine contained money and an illegal metering system to log revenues and payouts, despite bar owners' protests that the devices were just for fun. Bar owners historically have split thousands in profits with the distributors, he said.

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