Bingo in Disguise!!!

Just read this article, which seems very interesting, that is if you get fascinated by little legal loopholes that have always existed and made law practice a little harder.

There are these electronic machines, right… They work like slots, look like slots, some of them have spinning cherries and bar icons, but somehow they have been considered “bingo games” and were left legal even after slots were banned.

Well now some lawmakers are keen to get slots back to use the profits for certain social aspect. There is a November referendum lined up, which will reveal the results from votes “for” and “against” slot machines coming back. Some officials feel that the sole existence of so called “bingo games” is going to influence voters’ decision of whether to say yes or no to bringing back slots.

Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton is the governor of Southern Maryland, where these machines have spread incredibly and are now present in nearly every single bar and club and other social get-togethers.

Here is how he feels the presence of the machines will influence the November referendum outcome: “Some of us feel it puts the whole [slot machine] referendum in jeopardy. People see the machines cropping up everywhere and will say that they don’t want them anywhere. Others might say, ‘Well, I like slot machines just where they are now, I don’t need to go to any of the tracks, so why should I vote for it?’”

The second reason is the competitiveness of such machines to lottery, meaning the revenue gets split between the two, but instead of the profits going towards infrastructure and social services’ improvement in the lottery case, the profits are going to private owners and operators of these electronic machines.

Here are the words of Miller, one of the officials, who is trying to push the legalization of the slots: “These machines have sprung up almost like a disease. These are counterfeit slots, but the money goes to private entrepreneurs. It doesn’t benefit the state.”

There id nevertheless an opposing side on one hand consisting of owners and operators of tese machines, who obviously do not want to wave goodbye to the profits; on the other hand there are officials who managed to strictly regulate these machines in their starts and use the profits towards education and emergency services. There is also a third party that would stand strongly for having these machines, which is the non-profits organizations that fully or mostly rely on the revenues made from these little electronic gismos..

So here is the dilemma – How would you resolve this issue? Would you vote for or against slots? Would you leave “bingo Games” or get rid of them?