What is the meaning of Slot Machine? If a video game looks like a slot machine, plays like a slot machine, and pays out like a slot machine, is it still a slot machine if you know whether you’re going to win or lose?
No, said an attorney for a Jacksonville company that distributes what are called “pre-reveal” games, which can be found across the state in bars and taverns. A three-judge panel for Tallahassee’s 1st District Court of Appeal heard argument in the case Tuesday.
The games “preview” outcomes as to their winning or losing nature. Judge James R. Wolf said the case wasn’t really about knowing the outcome of any individual play, but whether there was unpredictability in the “entire course of play.”
“I understand you don’t have to keep going, but come on, don’t make the argument they made in the trial court that people put money in just to see the fancy lights glow; that’s not why people put money in this machine,” he told Bryan DeMaggio, the attorney for Gator Coin II.
“They’re putting money in this machine because of an unpredictable outcome that’s going to come up,” Wolf added. Other states, including Indiana and North Carolina, have found pre-reveal games to be illegal gambling.
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