Laris Enterprises, Inc., Appeal

30 Pa. D. & C.2d 179, 1963 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284
CourtBeaver County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedJanuary 21, 1963
Docketno. 27
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 30 Pa. D. & C.2d 179 (Laris Enterprises, Inc., Appeal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Beaver County Court of Quarter Sessions primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Laris Enterprises, Inc., Appeal, 30 Pa. D. & C.2d 179, 1963 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1963).

Opinion

McCreary, P. J.,

This is a proceeding in rem under the provisions of the Act of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382, sec. 60, instituted and prosecuted by the district attorney of Beaver County for the forfeiture and destruction of three pinball machines, two of them of the “in line” bingo type and the other of a similar type, alleged to constitute gambling devices. A return was duly made, and on April 25,1962, a hearing was commenced on a rule duly issued requiring the Laris Enterprises, Inc., to show cause why the three machines should not be condemned and declared forfeited as gambling devices “per se.” Prom the testimony adduced at the hearing we find the facts to be as follows:

1. On December 12, 1961, Beaver County detectives visited the Colonial Grill on Merchant Street, Am-bridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, having with them a search warrant directed to that place from Justice of the Peace Frank Storar and there took into custody three coin machines, namely: Lotta-Fun, #B2063; Lotta-Pun, #B2777; Old Plantation, #KE-1066; and had the county works department transport the machines to the court house shortly thereafter. Detective Meskow had been in the Colonial Grill on a previous day and had noted the machines.

2. The three machines in question were lawfully taken into custody from Colonial Grill at Ambridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on December 12, 1961, by Beaver County detectives acting under a search warrant obtained by them from Squire Storar.

[181]*1813. The machines are owned by Laris Enterprises, Inc. (hereinafter termed the operator), of which George Laris, who is a resident of Ambridge and who was present in court for these proceedings, is president.

4. Lotta-Fun #B2063 is a bingo type pinball coin machine manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Company, at Chicago, Illinois, condemned by the case of Trombetta Return, 16 D. & C. 2d 363, affirmed sub nomine American Legion Post No. 51 Appeal, 188 Pa. Superior Ct. 480.

5. The playing field is an inclined horizontal plane sloping downward toward the player under a plate glass cover. To the player’s right is the typical pinball machine plunger and chute from which he propels balls onto the field where they tend to roll with the incline. In the field are 25 holes numbered consecutively from player’s left to right and from top to bottom, and a single unnumbered hole at the very bottom; and the field is studded with rubber-ringed pegs and spring-steel bumpers to obstruct a ball descending the plane and cause it to take erratic courses.

6. The score board of the machine is a vertical plate glass facing the player from the opposite end of the playing field. Across the top of the glass in an arched horizontal line from player’s left to right we see 100, 200, 300, etc., to 900 inclusive; next below in a similar line, 1,000, 2,000, etc., to 9,000 inclusive; next below we see 10,000, 11,000, etc., to 20,000; below those figures the name of the machine, Lotta-Fun, and figures of young folks riding a merry-go-round; the bottom half of the glass shows six bingo cards designated first, second, third from left to right, and under those, three more, fourth, fifth, sixth. Each card shows the numbers 1 through 25, five across and five down, apparently arranged at random. However, study shows they are so arranged that a player cannot get 4-in-line or 5-in-[182]*182line on more than one card at a time, although, if only one dime is played, the other five cards light up in such a manner as to make the player wish he had played another card or another dime. The card not played gives no free games. It constitutes a lure to induce him to play more dimes the next time he plays.

7. The machine is powered by electricity and activated by inserting a dime. It is operated, externally, by the player propelling five balls onto the playing surface. It is operated, internally, by complicated automatic electrical and mechanical devices which are put into action by electric contact made when a ball comes to rest in one of the 25 numbered holes. If a ball finds its way into the unnumbered hole it goes through the machine and into play again, it is a “free” ball.

8. One dime deposited lights part of the scoreboard including the word first under the first of the six bingo cards and puts that card, only, in play. Further, it activates the machine so that the player may shoot five balls and take his chances, on the first card only. As a ball comes to rest in a numbered hole on the field, that number lights up on each bingo card that bears that number. It counts for the player only if it is on a card, or cards, in play. One dime, one chance to win; two dimes, two chances to win, etc.

9. A player wins if a bingo card which is in play shows three or more numbers lighted in a diagonal or horizontal or vertical line: 3-in-line scored 400,4-in-line scored 2,000, 5 in-line scored 20,000, and each 100 scored was good for one replay. If a player plays only one dime, his chance to make a big score is only one-sixth of what his chance is if he plays six dimes on six cards, just as it is on a regular bingo game.

10. A player may insert a second dime before shooting a ball, and the word second will light up, and then that card is in play; and so on, up to six dimes for six cards to be in play. Whether the play be on one dime, [183]*183or more, only the same five balls are played. It is a mathematical fact that in such a situation a player putting in more than one dime does not proportionately better his chance of winning, but for six times as much chance of winning as he has on one dime.

11. An inducement to a player to spend multiple dimes before playing the five balls is the printed notice on the playing surface which reads “Center Number of One Card May Be Spotted When First Ball Is Shot.” Spotted means lighted without a ball resting in the hole which bears the corresponding number. That is approximately the equivalent of an extra ball for the player, although not quite, for the advantage can disappear if one of the five balls happens to land on a number which the automatic contraption has already spotted. The words “One” and “May” mean just that, it is a pure chance proposition to the player, completely beyond his control. Out of sight of the player the machine is equipped with an electric spotting unit adjustment. The operator can control the frequency with which players are granted that advantage, by his manipulation of the adjustment, making it liberal or conservative. It is under the operator’s exclusive lock and key, beyond the control of the location owner, and beyond the awareness of the average player. Inside the machine is a three pronged plug, adjustable by the operator and unknown by the player, which adjusts the frequency of the advantage. It reads as follows inside the machine:

[184]*18412. Out of sight of the player, the machine is equipped with an electric tilt mechanism which is under the exclusive control of the operator. It is adjustable, so that the operator can make the machine as sensitive as he deems profitable to him. The function of the device is to prohibit the player from physically affecting (“gunching”) the course of the ball down the playing field, and to leave its course to chance.

13. Out of sight of the player, the machine is equipped with an electric “Red Button Adj.” by which the operator can set the machine so that games won cannot be played off, can only be “knocked off.” This adjustment discredits completely the contention that the machine is an amusement device.

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Related

Laris Enterprises, Inc. Appeal
192 A.2d 240 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1963)

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30 Pa. D. & C.2d 179, 1963 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laris-enterprises-inc-appeal-paqtrsessbeaver-1963.