Addicts can recoup losses

Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The state Supreme Court has ruled that addicted gamblers can recoup losses from video machine operators.

However, since the $3 billion video poker business has been outlawed for almost two years, it is unlikely that gamblers could get any money, an industry attorney said.

"Unless you believe in blood from a turnip, this thing is largely academic," Dwight Drake, a lawyer for the South Carolina Coin Operators Association, said. "It's the beginnings of the last lashes of a dead horse."

Attorneys for the gamblers say they will go after the assets of the video machine companies and the personal wealth of their owners.

"We expect to spend a few years chasing down hidden or transferred assets," said lawyer Larry Richter, a Republican candidate for attorney general who argued the case before the Supreme Court. "We're not going away."

Tuesday's ruling, he said, was "the last nail in the coffin" for the video gambling business.

The court ruled on several legal issues, including that the industry routinely operated outside the boundaries of state law and was, therefore, an illegal gambling business.

The court also said gamblers are eligible to recover three times their losses because machine operators were in violation of fair trade practices.

"The practices are so flagrant and obviously violative of public policy and so fraught with deception and unfairness that this court cannot but conclude that they constitute unfair trade practices as a matter of law," Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote.

Jackpots in excess of the daily payout limit of $125 were illegal "special inducements" to get people to play the video gambling machines, the court ruled. Each payout also could be an act of racketeering under federal law.

The suit now goes back to U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson, who will be asked to rule on the case based on the facts.

Even if Anderson rules in favor of the gamblers, each one would have to show he or she played the machines because of the jackpots and not for fun, Drake said. Players also would have to show how much of their losses occurred in the chase for jackpots.

The machine operators have several options including settling the suit or requesting a jury hear the case.