Florida cities quiet on kids’ gaming machines

Since Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation outlawing video Game machines last month, South Florida cops have rolled through their cities like the Untouchables, seizing dozens of machines from mom-and-pop stores and cafes and arresting their owners, while politicians deliver fiery orations about rubbing out a cancer on the community.

But everybody has been curiously quiet about another aspect of the law: big, well-heeled — and lawyered-up — kiddie and adult arcades whose machines were also outlawed by the new legislation. A Miami Herald check of popular chains like Dave & Buster’s, Chuck E. Cheese’s and Game Time found hundreds of machines that don’t comply with the new law.

“I’m not going to go arrest Chuck E. Cheese in front of a bunch of 6-year-olds,” said Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez, whose city, on the day the law took effect, confiscated 72 machines from cafes and arcades that cater to the elderly. “If the governor and the Legislature want that, they can come and do it themselves.”

His words drew a bitter reaction from Jennifer Morejon, who was ordered by Hialeah police to close down her video arcade catering to the elderly and dismantle its 100 machines, or face arrest.

“It’s just discrimination,” she said. “How can the machines be bad for my customers, who are adults spending their own money, but not for kids? This is something you expect in a country like Cuba, not the United States.”

The new law was approved by overwhelming margins in both chambers of the Legislature after the news broke that so-called Internet cafes where computers were set up for casino-style gambling, which supposedly were operated by a charity that sent the profits to veterans’ organizations, were actually pocketing nearly all the money.

The scandal forced the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, whose public-relations firm had represented the Internet cafes. And it threatened to spread when it turned out the operators had made campaign donations to a number of legislators.

The law effectively put the Internet cafes out of business, as well as making illegal the so-called maquinitas — “little machines,” coin-operated gambling games scattered through stores and restaurants in South Florida’s blue-collar neighborhoods.

But it also included several provisions that would apply to most popular video arcades. Prizes must be merchandise — not cash or gift certificates — and they can’t be worth more than 75 cents. The games must include at least some element of skill. And they must be coin-operated rather activated by dollar bills or swiping a computerized card. The law also upped the potential penalty for operating illegal games to a second-degree felony punishable by 15 years in prison.

The sweeping nature of the law, coupled with the harsh penalty, convinced many business owners to get rid of their machines — especially after Miami cops staged a series of photo-op seizures and arrests. Hundreds of arcades for senior citizens around the state shut down after their association’s attorney warned them their businesses ran afoul of the law.