DELANO, CA and NEWPORT, TN -- Police in Delano, a small city north of Bakersfield, confiscated $4,000 in cash along with 14 coin-pusher machines citywide during the first week of February.
According to DPD Commander Lynn Venables, "They are all games of chance which are illegal by a penal code in the state of California where you are risking your money on a chance to earn more money back."
Venables also claimed the machines were affixed with "fraudulent state seals."
Certain pusher games are legal in California if operated properly; this has been the case since Wedges/Ledges of Redondo Beach, CA, won approval from authorities for the game of the same name back in the mid-1980s.
However, as previously reported by VT, on Nov. 9, 2010, the California Bureau of Gambling Control issued a somewhat confusing advisory bulletin that could be interpreted to mean that any risk-reward game was illegal. | SEE STORY
Police said the machines had taken in $100,000 since August.
In a similar story on the other side of the country, local police seized about $600 and four pusher games from three locations in Newport, TN. Officials said the state attorney general had ruled the devices are illegal gambling equipment in Tennessee.
