By Angeljean Chiaramida
SALISBURY — Owners of four local convenience stores will go before a clerk magistrate next month to find out whether they will face felony gambling charges for installing video gambling machines that paid out phone cards that could be exchanged for cash.
It's been more than two months since charges were filed in Newburyport District Court against 10 people Salisbury police believe violated the state's gambling laws by allowing video gambling machines in the stores.
Owners and employees at Salisbury's Richdale, Dick's Variety, Marte-L's and Mobil On the Run convenience stores are all charged with "setting up and promoting a lottery and gaming device," according to Salisbury police Sgt. Anthony King.
They will have hearings before a clerk magistrate at district court in August to determine probable cause that crimes were committed, Salisbury police Chief David L'Esperance said yesterday.
Thomas Butters, the attorney for King's Pre-Paid Phone Card, LLC, the company that placed the machines in the four local stores, claims the machines are legal if played according to instructions. Butters said the machine's legality was proven by a court decision in 2006.
"You put a dollar in the machine, and for a dollar, you get a 30-minutes prepaid phone card to use anywhere in the United States," Butters said in an earlier interview. "Then if you want, you can play the sweepstakes for free, and if they win, they get the money. People don't have to put any money into the machine to play. That's why it's legal."
L'Esperance vehemently denied that claim yesterday.
"Let me be very clear about this," L'Esperance said yesterday. "No governing authority I am aware of has determined that these machines are acceptable or legal. Even if a governing authority did determine they are, there is the issue of the permitting of the machines from the town and determining if they present any entertainment value. The town never issued (entertainment game) permits for these machines. The question turns on what entertainment value the machines present and that no one ever applied to the town so it could determine the entertainment value, as is required."
The charges were the result of simultaneous raids at the stores the morning of March 31, when 10 video machines programmed with a poker game were seized, along with nearly $25,000 in cash, proceeds from what a multi-agency police investigation indicated was an illegal gambling scheme built around a phone card promotion, King said.
L'Esperance and King have said the situation in Salisbury, as discovered by their undercover investigator, was different from the 2006 court case cited by Butters.
"People inserted money into the machines, and the money would register as credits on (the video screens)," King said. "People could then use the buttons to gamble. They could bet; they could double down. When they were done, employees at the stores would verify the number of credits the people earned and pay them money based on the credits. Some people were big winners; some lost money."
Taunton police also raided convenience stores in their town this spring, seizing similar machines for illegal gambling.
Butters filed a civil suit against L'Esperance and the town because of the raid and seizure. The civil case has not been settled, L'Esperance said yesterday.
"We hope that by August we will have this (civil) matter resolved," L'Esperance said. "By then, we hope to have an opinion of what is and what isn't acceptable for the town concerning these machines. Salisbury is a family resort providing family entertainment. I don't know that these machines provide that type of family entertainment."
