Video gambling trial under way

Jacob Jordan

Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The man who once ran the state's largest video gambling operation came close to a contempt charge during his trial Thursday, a federal judge said.

"We are very close to a contempt situation," U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson said after the jury was removed from the courtroom, the second of many trips to a secluded room for the jury of two men and six women.

Three plaintiffs who describe themselves as addicted gamblers have sued Fred Collins, who operated more video gambling machines in South Carolina than anyone else before the $3 billion-a-year industry was banned three years ago.

The plaintiffs say Collins' gambling machines enticed them with offers of jackpots far above the then-legal payout limit of $125 a day and they want him to repay their losses.

Collins' company once owned one out of every six gambling machines in the state. In a lawsuit that has bounced around state and federal courts for six years, Collins is the only one out of 48 video gambling operators who did not settle.

A jury was selected Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon, Collins was on the stand in trouble with Anderson. The trouble continued Thursday as Anderson told Collins to stop volunteering inaccurate answers to questions from the gamblers' lawyer David Rothstein.

Collins justified payouts on his machines, saying there were stickers on the machines that warned of the payout limit and testified that an attorney general's opinion allowed payments of $125 more than what gamblers put into them.

But after telling the jury to leave, Anderson said that was not what he thought then-Attorney General Charlie Condon's opinion was.

"It's another episode of a volunteered answer" that's not factual, said Anderson, adding he thought Condon offered three potential interpretations of the law but left it up to the state Revenue Department to decide which to use.

At one point, Collins asked Rothstein to stop asking him questions that could get him in trouble with the judge. "I don't want any trouble, please," Collins said. "Don't ask me something that I can't answer."

Collins' attorney Jim Bannister said the legal team "was frustrated about being limited by the court on introducing evidence regarding Mr. Collins' attempts to comply with the law."

The jury also heard testimony Thursday from plaintiff Andreas Drutis, who testified that he lost about $9,000, but didn't have ATM receipts to account for all of his losses.

Drutis said he spent about $75 a week over 120-week period, often gambling on his way to and from work at a Columbia airport.

"I gambled everyday. I'm very ashamed," Drutis said, fighting back tears.

But Bannister said neither Collins nor any of his employees ever handed out payouts to Drutis, who conceded he had received payouts of more than $125 only from store clerks or attendants.

Bannister also said that Drutis knew payouts of more than $125 were illegal and never told law enforcement or Collins' company that gamblers were being paid out more than $125. It was not illegal for Drutis to receive a payout of more than $125.

Drutis knew that what was going on wasn't right, but he decided later to sue to try to get back his losses, Bannister said.

"I guess you're right," Drutis said.