A coin-operated game that offered high-priced prizes in malls and stores across ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was illegally rigged against players, and the vendor that supplied them has agreed to pay $1 million to settle consumer fraud charges, the state attorney general says.
The Sega Key Master game machines, filled with loot like iPads and $300 headphones, purported to offer a game of skill that anyone could potentially win.
Instead, the devices were set so that up to 2,200 players had to lose before the prize-dispensing function kicked in, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a news release Wednesday.
That means the machines were actually offering a game of chance comparable to slot machines, which are only legal in licensed casinos, the news release said.
“Under ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ law, outside of casinos, it is illegal for gaming machines to have settings that permit an operator to alter the odds of participants winning the game,†Brnovich said.
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The machines, about 3 feet wide by 6 feet tall, cost a dollar to play and have three rows of “keyholes†positioned over prizes. Players, who often are children, would use a joystick and button to try to guide a mechanical key into the keyhole next to the prize of their choice.
Only one former ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ game location was listed in court records, at the El Super grocery store at 3372 S. 6th Ave.
The state announced a consent settlement Wednesday with Betson Coin-Op Distributing Company, Inc. the New Jersey-based vendor that procured about 25 of the game machines for companies in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ between 2011 and 2013.
The company did not acknowledge wrongdoing but agreed to pay the state $1 million and is banned from selling or leasing any more of the game machines in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
