After Rick Scott passed a bill outlawing gambling video machines in Florida last year, entertainment venues everywhere found their machines confiscated, and even more venues – mom and pop stores, little cafes and more – simply removed the machines themselves, fearing that the law would descend upon them.
As the Miami Herald reports, everybody is curiously quiet about another aspect of the law: big, well-heeled — and lawyered-up — kiddie and adult arcades whose machines were also outlawed by the new legislation. A Miami Herald check of popular chains like Dave & Buster’s, Chuck E. Cheese’s and Game Time found hundreds of machines that don’t comply with the new law.
“I’m not going to go arrest Chuck E. Cheese in front of a bunch of 6-year-olds,” said Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez, whose city, on the day the law took effect, confiscated 72 machines from cafes and arcades that cater to the elderly. “If the governor and the Legislature want that, they can come and do it themselves.”
Read more about the gambling law in Florida here.
