Legal Issues ?

I know that many members here say that "all you have to do is get a DOJ"... but I feel that I must disagree. It most likely depends on the state in which you reside, but I know that "out west," getting a DOJ in and of itself not only does NOT entitle you to own slots, but will bring the attention of the authorities.

In our neck of the woods, you would also have to register with the state as a slot dealer/restorer or parts seller, and would have to set up a business for same (at minimum a DBA), as well as pay the state an annual fee for the license. Once the state has its money and you have your license, they'll be happy and won't really care if you never actually do any business. Of course, you would still have to keep up appearances. In addition, registered dealers have to keep records of all serial numbers of machines bought, sold, traded, and parted out.

It's true that the DOJ form has a checkbox for home owners who only have a private collection and are not in business, and I can't speak to the laws of other states as to whether owning a slot that would otherwise not be legal in the state becomes legal simply because you've registered with the DOJ. However, I would think that in many states (if not most), it would not, since you would only be complying with federal law and would still be breaking state law.

At the end of the day, I would highly recommend that any home owner living in a restricted state, who is not actually going into business, do their due diligence and be very cautious about getting that DOJ.

Quote from: jay on April 24, 2011, 03:55:42 AM

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Irrespectve the experience of most of our memebers is that if unless you are running an illegal underground casino no one is out witch hunting. You can also further protect yourself by running off of tokens vs coins.
This way no neighborhood kid can run home and tell his parents they lost their lunch money.

In practice, as long as you don't allow anyone to actually gamble and don't advertise to everyone that you have a bunch of slot machines, you'll probably be just fine. It's a minor nonviolent low priority crime that nobody really cares about. We've had members post who have even had police officers come to their homes for other reasons and who have done nothing -- in many cases, not even knowing what the slot ownership laws in the state were.

Frankly, if you look at any city on Craigslist, you'll find dozens of slots listed for sale every day in just about every part of the country, legal or not, and those people would have a much higher chance of being targeted than anyone quietly playing a slot in their game room. Even so, sellers don't seem too concerned. My only caution in that arena would be to say that lately, there is more of a risk of being caught if you routinely lists illegal slots for sale on Craigslist, due to local municipalities and states being broke and looking for ways to bring in revenue any way they can. But that's just IMHO and I don't have any facts to back it up.

Stat garfield