A jury in a Los Angeles County Superior Court has found a coin-operated pusher game to be an illegal gambling device following a one-week trial.
According to national trade press Vending Times, after the verdict, rendered on April 14, several defendants in pending cases that deal with similar machines reportedly changed their pleas to guilty. Earlier pusher cases this year have seen local California police seize pusher games in the cities of Delano and Visa.
Jerry Pillen, a detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, brought the El Monte case against an operator who had placed the pushers in local retail businesses. The pusher at issue was a single-player unit, with a horizontal moveable coin entry slot near the top of the cabinet. A button marked "skill stop" could pause the upper tier pusher at the player’s command.
Testing revealed operator profit of about 27 per cent or more of the playfield’s moving quarters. As a prize inducement, rolls of quarters wrapped with $5 and $20 bills were placed near the front lip of the lower tier.
The store location owner testified as to the split of revenue agreement with the route operator. California law does not prohibit awarding cash per se. But the machine, when coupled with the pusher at issue, was serving as an illegal slot device, in the opinion of the jury.
According to the detective, the trial was significant as California law enforcement officers voiced frustration and concern at the influx of reported "for amusement" machines displaying prizes of hard currency. This includes cranes with $100 bills and pushers with rolls of coins and banknotes among the quarters.
