Thank God, our very own state attorney weighs in on the Maquinitas!

Just in the nick of time no less!  With illegal gambling machines (aka maquinitas) popping up all over the place despite the fact that the governor signed legislation into law banning them and clearing making them illegal, what could be better than an opinion from our very own state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, regarding these machines and their legality?

First we'll start with an email from John Tupps to one of our readers from Governor Scott's press office regarding these machines...

Governor Scott was pleased to sign legislation that banned illegal internet cafes across Florida, including Allied Veterans – a multi-state criminal conspiracy. Law enforcement officers must make the determination whether any machine violates the law. Accordingly, you should speak with local law enforcement and the state attorney’s office.

Ok, great!  Logically, the next step would be to reach out to our state attorneys office since at least one municipality, Hialeah, is under the impression that these machines are legal.  With that said, take a look at the response from the state attorneys office...

Since the machines themselves are not illegal, unless and until there is some sort of “payout” for playing them, there would need to be some police undercover work in order to make an arrest for possession of the “maquinitas”.  Hillah Mendez, Legal Counsel for the Hialeah Police Department, contacted our office and we explained this investigative requirement to her.  It is up to the Hialeah Police Department, or any individual police department, to undertake such an investigative effort. Thank you. Tere ChavezMedia RelationsMiami-Dade State Attorney's Office305-547-0885

Oh, OK!  So the machines are not illegal despite all this grandstanding and other bullshit...

Alrighty then, I guess the problems been solved!  Despite our very own governor outlawing these machines statewide and shutting down the businesses that housed them, now our very own state attorneys office has given them her blessing and made them practically immune to prosecution.  Perhaps the machine owners just need to affix one of these stickers to the machines and their problems with law enforcement will be a distant memory...

Doesn't this man look amused?

Check out our friend Elaine de Valle's story on the ever present maquinitas, tomorrow we'll get back to our discussion of former state attorney Richard E. Gerstein.

Spanish language TV picks up the Maquinita story...

Or at least I think they did?!  I don't speak or understand Spanish, nor am I able to get the video where channel 41 allegedly discusses the maquinitas that are being found all around town to play on line.  Here's the video embeddedm the discussion starts at around the 17:00 mark...



Video streaming by Ustream

And here's the link to the story just in case the embedded video doesn't show up.  

Ironically the commercials before the video worked just fine for me but the actual video where they discuss the maquinitas refused to work for me for the first few tries, by the third time it worked.  The best part though comes at the 18:43 mark where a cop shows up where the TV crew is filming and looks dumbfounded when the reporter asks him about the illegal gaming machines inside the restaurant...

If I'm not mistaken, I think the cop actually tells the reporter that the machines are legal in Hialeah!

That's enough for now, it's Friday, we'll pick up where we left off next week.

They're ba-ack! Fucking maquinitas are popping up all over the place again!

Can you believe this shit?  After fighting these goddamn machines for years on end and finally thinking we had won, they're back with a fucking vengeance!  Back in March the Florida senate passed a bill outlawing these machines, that doddering old fool of a mayor Tomas Regalado even came out publicly and stated that the maquinitas are illegal...

Despite all of that, despite all of the press conferences, despite all the grandstanding by local pandering politicians, it was all bullshit as they're showing up in all the usual places.  Take a look at some of these photos that one of our readers sent us, mind you, these photos were all taken within the last 48 hours at various locations throughout the City of Hialeah...

In the backs of restaurants, hidden in the back corners of small mom and pop grocery stores, whether out in the open...

Or hidden behind shelves just out of view.  Would you be there?  Could you be there...

For those establishment owners with a modicum of common sense, they try to hide them behind boxes off in a far corner...

Or secret them in a back store room just out of view...

On the other hand, you have those business owner that are so brazen that they not only have them machines out in the open in plain view for anyone to see in storefronts...

With the photos of the machines plastered on their storefronts!

Can you believe this shit?  Despite all the hoopla about the machines officially being made illegal, despite all the media coverage, despite all of the photo ops with bulldozers crushing illegal gaming machines all over the local press, the machines are back, back with a vengeance no less!

What makes matters worse though is that one of loyal readers, who happens to be a public servant, sent the photos you see here over to the feds in an effort to stop what ostensibly looks like, smells like and certainly feels like illegal activity.  What the feds did with that information though is borderline scandalous, what's that old saying?

"the cover up is worse than the crime?"  

We'll discuss in depth tomorrow, in the mean time, if any of you guys spot more of these maquinitas, take photos and send them to me!

Rare footage from City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado's raid on the maquinitas yesterday...

In case anyone missed it, yesterday City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and his pals conducted a nonsensical press conference where he publicly came out against the illegal gambling machines that we all know well and love, the maquinitas.  Our friend Al Crespo covered the press conference and the hypocrisy of the whole ordeal on his site this morning...

So, all of a sudden, Tomas Regalado has become a law-and-order guy when it comes to these maquinitas.  Forget that he personally inserted a maquinita owner - and not just any maquinita owner - but one who had been identified in a federal indictment as a mid-level member of the Cuban Mafia, to be part of the committee headed by the Miami City Attorney to draft the ordinance that allowed the machines to get licensed in the City of Miami.
That’s like inviting a child molester to be part of the committee tasked with writing a city ordinance to keep child molesters away from your kids.
Tomas Regalado took campaign money, and was in the pocket of these maquinita owners right up to this morning, and if he gets a chance he’ll continue to do favors for these same guys whenever her gets the opportunity, because that’s just the kind of guy that Regalado is.

Can the mayor sink any lower than this embarrassing publicity stunt?  The same mayor that was in the maquinita owner's pockets is now backed into a corner and has done an about face regarding these machines whose owners were his strongest campaign backers?  Honestly folks, WTF?

Finally back up and running and by the way, where have all the maquinitas gone?

After a full week of battling with AT&T, endless hours on the phone with tech support from god only knows where, last night at 11:30 pm, I finally got my internet back up and running!  I'm not sure what the hell happened to lead to my internet outage for over a week but it took an AT&T tech in person, a new modem and all sorts of troubleshooting to get me back up and running.  Coincidence or just bad luck?  Who knows.

Moving on, during our hiatus, I noticed during my usual stops throughout the cafeterias and convenience stores of Miami Dade county that there seemed to be something missing, specifically maquinitas!

I didn't figure it out till I actually saw a guy with a hand truck removing the machines from one of the cafeterias that I grab breakfast at.  I guess the bill that was passed by the Florida senate last week has the maquinita owners scrambling for cover.  From the Miami Herald article regarding the bill...

Slot machine look-alike games operated by Internet cafes, amusement arcades and Miami’s maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed Thursday by the Florida Senate.

Gov. Rick Scott will sign the bill into law, according to his spokeswoman, and it will immediately take effect, giving law enforcement the authority to shut down games that fit into the newly-crafted definitions.

“What we’re doing today is doing nothing more than giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need when they find illegal gambling to shut it down,’’ said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the sponsor of the Senate bill. The Senate voted 36-4 for HB 155, which had been overwhelmingly approved two weeks ago by the Florida House,108-7

The measure moved swiftly through Tallahassee in reaction to a federal and state investigation into Allied Veterans of the World three weeks ago that led to the arrests of 57 people charged with illegal gambling, money laundering and racketeering. The investigation prompted Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who had once worked for Allied Veterans, to resign.

Police allege that that the sham veterans’ group made $300 million in profits by operating the illegal machines, but donated only about $6 million to charity. The investigation is continuing and law enforcement say they are targeting other operators.

The change effectively allows only pari-mutuels and the tribal casinos to operate casino-style games and bans any “casino-style game in which the outcome is determined by factors unpredicted by the players or games in which the player may not control the outcome of the game through skill.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/04/3324161/legislature-sends-internet-cafe.html#storylink=cpy

Fucking brilliant!  While the 70/30 split the machine owners offered the business owners was certainly lucrative, it's about time these things were outlawed.  I'm sure the economic impact for the business owners will be devastating as several of them, including my own tenants, have told me that they operate their business strictly as a front in order to house these machines.  More importantly thought, the outlawing of these machines cuts off a major income source for the underground business owners who reaped the benefits of the millions upon millions of tax free cash dollars that these machines generated.  To give you an idea of just how much money we're talking about, a former tenant of mine who had seven of these machines claimed that he was netting $2,000 per week from his machines, which would mean the machine owners were picking up around $870 per week or about a $125 per week per machine.  Taking that number into account then figuring the thousands of machines that were scattered all about Miami Dade County alone gives you an idea of the kind of money the machine owners were raking in.

Thank god that these machines and the political influence their operators and owners ill gotten gains created is gone once and for all.  The job former City of Miami Police Chief, Miguel Exposito, and his command staff started but wasn't allowed to finish has finally been completed, unfortunately it cost them their careers...

And to the doddering old fool that was protecting these illegal gaming machines and their owners?  FUCK YOU!

Could this be the end of the maquinitas?

We've extensively covered the battle over the illegal gaming machines that are all over Miami Dade county throughout the years, the most famous of which was the war between current City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Police Chief Miguel Exposito which ultimately ended in his unceremonious firing from the police department.  While Exposito's demise seemed like a fatal blow to those who hoped to rid our city of these illegal gaming machines, the recent scandal involving the Jacksonville-based Allied Veterans of the World that ultimately brought about the resignation of our very own lieutenant governor Jenifer "I'm not a lesbian" Carroll, lit a fire under the anti maquinita camp again which has now culminated with Florida Senate bill HB 155, from the Miami Herald Article regarding the bill...

House Panel Passes Bill To Outlaw Illegal Gambling MachinesMary Ellen Klas
The online slot machines operated by strip mall Internet cafes, adult arcades and Miami-based maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed by a House panel on Friday.
In a 15-1 vote, the House Select Committee passed the bill (HB 155) just days after state and federal authorities arrested 57 individuals with ties to Jacksonville-based Allied Veterans of the World, a purported veterans charity organization that ran an illegal gambling operation.
The House measure, sponsored by Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, makes web-based gambling devices illegal because they are deemed games of chance and not games of skill, as promoters claim. Under the bill, promotional giveaways, like those offered by fast food restaurants or car dealers, will be allowed, but electronic casino-like games disguised as a sweepstakes or arcade game will be banned.
The bill was supported by an unusual coalition that included the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the pari-mutuel industry, the greyhound racing association and the Florida Baptist Convention. No one spoke in support of preserving or regulating the Internet cafes.
The bill clarifies existing law by prohibiting electronic gambling devices for charitable promotions, updates the definition of slot machines to include network-based machines like those used in Internet cafes and bans machines intended to simulate casino games and slot machines.

FINALLY!

Trujillo said the legislation was needed because these cases are "extremely difficult to prosecute and extremely costly...The operators and promoters are very creative and they basically skirted around state law and it comes down to a battle of experts. And the experts have to decide, are these games of skill or games of chance?"

You don't say? Even when experts decide that the machines are illegal, somehow the crooks in the City of Miami still make it impossible to get rid of them! Remember the scandal around the expert witness report that we obtained last year?

The Senate on Monday is set to take up a bill that is “similar or identical to the House’s bill,’’ said Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee. Legislative leaders expect to have the bill reach the governor’s desk by the end of the month.

It's rather obvious that the casino and para-mutual lobby are the ones that are behind this legislation and why the hell not?  Theoretically these guys have legal gambling establishments that are highly regulated by the state, so why shouldn't they protect their businesses?  Remember how the expert witness characterized the maquinitas when compared to legal gaming machines?

In a legal gambling jurisdiction, such as Nevada, New Jersey, or Mississippi, the discovery of a reflexive percentaging scheme in an acknowledged slot machine, would cause Gaming Inspectors to turn that machine off immediately, and would result in fines and disciplinary action for the casino responsible.

Once again, from the Herald article...

Internet cafes are not regulated by the state, but have been allowed to operate under regulation in several municipalities, including Hialeah and Jacksonville. Police have succeeded in closing down operators in some areas while in others courts have ruled the law is too vague to prevent them from operating.

Finally, it looks like by the end of the month the maquinitas will be history and with them goes the underground economy they support along with the worthless shitbag politicians they back.  The lack of funding from the illegal gaming industry in Miami should make for an interesting upcoming election season.

The Maquinita wars, once again the MDPD get it right...

It seems like the ongoing battle with the ever present illegal gaming machines (aka maquinitas) was all but forgotten from Miami's landscape then lo and behold last night we came across this...

Once again it looks like Miami Dade County Police did a kick ass job of busting an illegal gaming establishment which is in stark contrast to how the police over in the City of Miami handle these machines and their owners...

County cops arrested the 76 year Santiago Acosta who owns the market where the machines were located and charged him with several charges relating to the ownership and operation of these machines.  Mr Acosta is still in jail as of this morning awaiting bail.

Congrats to the folks over at the MDPD for a job well done, nothing to worry about over at the City of Miami though as these machines are perfectly legal!

What happened to Dade county's fight against the maquinitas?

While we're all well aware of the maquinita saga within the City of Miami, what happened to the ongoing war against the illegal gaming machines at the county level?  About a year ago the Miami Dade County Police department conducted an extensive undercover investigation where they placed undercover cops in various shops where these gaming machines were and actually had them play till they won and were subsequently paid their winnings in cash which ultimately led to the arrest of the owners of the establishments.  This was a big step forward in the fight against the "maquinitas" as this investigation was free and clear of any political motivations that were alleged to have caused the war between the various political factions within the City of Miami.  From the Miami Herald article which I can't seem to find online any more...

“The timing of our investigations is based upon the complexity of the case and our interaction with partner agencies, period,” said Miami-Dade police Cmdr. Nancy Perez, a spokeswoman. “Our investigations are not influenced by political considerations.”

What MDPD commander Nancy Perez was referring to was the timing of this case in reference to the then county mayoral elections following the ousting of Mayor Carlos Alvarez.  Shortly after these arrests were made, I actually went out and met with the undercover cops who made this case, at the time they were worried that if Julio Robaina was elected county mayor that there work against these gaming machines was going to be cut off as it was well known that Robaina was backed by the maquinita industry.  On the other hand, they were convinced that if Carlos Gimenez was elected they were going to keep going balls to the walls in their fight against the maquinita rackets, once again from the Miami Herald article...

One day after the Bird Road raid, Gimenez lambasted Robaina’s support of the gaming industry, calling for a police task force to combat the industry. “The citizens of this community have spoken against this illegal activity,” Gimenez said in a press release. “Today, I stand with the people of this community and with law enforcement in denouncing this delinquent activity.”

Gimenez went further on Michael Putney's show on channel 10 and said...

“If I were mayor, I’d definitely propose an ordinance to outlaw them throughout Miami-Dade County...Because frankly, Michael, I believe that there’s organized crime behind this.” 

That sounds fantastic, doesn't it?  We were all convinced that upon his election, Gimenez was going to come out punching against the maquinitas and their owners, so what's happened nearly a year later?  As far as I can tell, NOTHING!  One of my sources tells me that since Gimenez was elected, the unit that was making these cases was scaled back, citing budget issues, and it's members have been subsequently reassigned to other cases.  Does that make any sense?  If our new county mayor was really out to get the people behind these machines, then what the hell happened?  Remember, Mayor Gimenez went so far as to publicly proclaim that he believed that "there's organized crime behind this", so what gives?  Gimenez gets elected and all of a sudden the crusade against the machines and their owners goes quiet?

Furthurmore, the judge presiding over this particular case seemed to see through all the defense's bullshit arguments...

“We can go around and around all day long. In my opin­ion, what’s going on is not an amuse­ment game. It’s not an amuse­ment ma­ch­ine; it’s gambling,”

So what happened?  The cops did their work, made their case and the subsequent arrests, the judge hearing the case seemed on board, at this point it's all left to the state attorneys office.  We'll dig around and see what we can find out.

City of Miami vs. North Korea, how much bullshit can we swallow?

If you're going to believe all the nonsense the citizens of Miami keep getting fed by the powers that be, you might as well believe this page out of a North Korean textbook...

Is it really that outrageous?  Think about it for a moment, what's more nonsensical, a magic hummingbird foretelling the birth of Kim Jong Il or our Mayor, Tomas Regalado, expecting us to believe that the ubiquitous gaming machines that litter every corner of Miami being used for nothing more than "amusement purposes"?  Or what's more believable, Kim Jong Il walking out of his mothers vagina six months premature or the Maquinita owners operating out in the open right in front of the police?!  

If that isn't enough, there's always Kim Jong Il's golf game, according to North Korean government, he was the best golfer the world has ever seen...

In 1994, Pyongyang media reported that Kim Jong-il shot an amazing 11 holes-in-one to achieve an unprecedented 38-under-par game on a regulation 18-hole golf course - on his first try at golf.

Reports say each of his 17 bodyguards verified the record-breaking feat.

Honestly, that sounds far more believable than the City of Miami sabotaging their own case when the maquinita owners sued to get their machines back, instead of paying for and submitting the expert witness's report to the court, they decided not to pay the expert for his report therefore dooming any chance they had at winning the case!

Now we come to my favorite part, political legitimacy...

Considering the amount of voter fraud that runs rampant through our community, what with the absentee ballot fraud, dead people voting, old people being swindled out of their votes, etc, does a 13 million to one landslide in a North Korean election really sound that crazy?  HARDLY!  The only part of this excerpt that seems slightly unbelievable is the part where lone dissenter was beaten to death by an angry mob using chickens, this scenario seems far more likely here in Miami.

Honestly, based on everything we've seen in the past few years alone, does anyone think that either of the Regalado political hacks have any more legitimacy than our deceased North Korean friend?

Seriously, while this North Korean history book is more than likely a joke, the state of affairs in our city isn't.  We've only touched upon a few outrageous facts about the recent goings on regarding our lovely city and the recent maquinita scandal, our friend Al Crespo delves deeper into the maquinita story on his blog today.

Tomorrow, we'll take a break from our City of Miami stories and see what's going on with the Airways Auto Tag Agency case.  Wouldn't it be interesting if there was some sort of link between the auto tag agency story, the City of South Miami and the maquinita's?

And now the Miami New Times picks up our Maquinita story...

Newspapers...

Yesterday we talked about the Miami Herald breifly mentioning the "maquinita" story in one of their articles from last week and now the Miami New Times picks up our coverage of the maquinitas.  Our friend Francisco Alvarado went one step further than we did with regards to the expert witness report and analysis of the maquinitas in police custody, he actually reached out to the expert witness, D. Robert Sertell, and gave him a call regarding the report.  From the article...

You know those gambling maquinitas in convenience stores around Miami, Hialeah, Opa-locka, and Miami Gardens? Turns out Miguel Exposito was right and then some about the racket. Last year, Miami's then-police chief fell out of favor with Mayor Tomás Regalado when cops confiscated 105 "video amusement" machines from dozens of markets, cafeterias, and laundromats.
Exposito said the devices were being used for illegal gambling purposes. When Regalado allegedly tried to stop the raids, the top cop reported the mayor to the FBI for meddling in a criminal investigation. Eventually, Exposito was forced out. But three months before the chief's departure, a gambling machine expert hired by the Miami city attorney's office concluded the seizedmaquinitas were indeed for gambling purposes.
What's more, D. Robert Sertell -- a former slot machine mechanic for an Atlantic City casino -- found that many of them were rigged to make sure the user always lost. Sertell's findings were never made public until recently.
After reading about it on Mike Hatami's blog the Strawbuyer, Banana Republican contacted the gambling expert. Sertell said he spent three days in June 2011 analyzing the machines seized by Miami police officers. "They were designed and manufactured specifically for the purpose of gambling," he said. "It's a slam dunk."
Furthermore, Sertell continued, most of the maquinitas were designed to cheat the customer. He explained that the confiscated machines would not be allowed inside establishments where gambling is legal in Florida. He should know. He has inspected gambling machines for 15 years and has a contract with the state to keep an eye on slots.
If the maquinitas held by Miami police were in a casino, Sertell said, they "would get immediately shut down and whoever was responsible for them would be subject to punitive action."
Even though he was paid $5,221 by the city, no one asked him to provide a written report, Sertell said. He typed one up only after a former Miami police official recently requested a copy. He declined to name the official. (Hatami tells Banana Republican he obtained his copy from a concerned private citizen.)
However, the city might still call on Sertell to give testimony in an ongoing lawsuit filed by the owners of the maquinitas who want their machines back.
Regalado and City Attorney Julie Bru did not reply to four phone messages seeking comment. Ricardo Merida, the lawyer for the maquinitas owners, declined to comment because he had not read Sertell's report.
However, one of their clients, Miguel Gonzalez, scoffed at Sertell's assertions. "He doesn't know what he's talking about," said Gonzalez, who lost ten machines in the raid. "I'm just a hard worker trying to make a living for my family."

Nice!  Isn't it amazing that no matter who the machines are taken from, their line is always something along the lines of "I'm just a hard worker trying to make a living" or "We are not breaking the law, we are just providing entertainment for people who choose to eat a meal here", yet these are the same characters that'll brag about how much money they take in every week from these same machines that they know are rigged to screw the players.  Whatever.  At the very least we know that there's more people paying attention to this somewhat forgotten maquinita story now.

I'm going to attend an important court hearing this afternoon regarding former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito and his termination from his post as police chief by the City of Miami commission last year. I'll update early this evening with the results.

The Herald kind of covers part of the maquinita story...

I was reading through the Herald the other day when I came across this article regarding former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito...

Former Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito’s case to be heard in court
By David Ovalle
dovalle@MiamiHerald.comOusted Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito, seeking to get his job back, will get his day in court Thursday.
A panel of three Miami-Dade circuit judges will hear Exposito’s argument that the Miami City Commission wrongly fired him in September.
During his tenure, Exposito picked very public battles with elected officials and Mayor Tomás Regalado, whom he accused of being in bed with owners of video gaming machines that his department had targeted for seizure.
In March, three judges denied a move by city attorneys to throw out the appeal because Exposito had been scheduled to retire anyway when he was terminated.
Despite his ouster, Exposito, former Maj. Al Alvarez and Exposito’s personal attorney Ruben Chavez sat in on a civil hearing last week between the city and the video machine owners.
The owners have sued the city seeking return of more than 100 machines seized by Exposito’s police officers. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Diane Ward refused to throw out the suit, and now an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled.

In the article Mr. Ovalle briefly mentions a hearing that I attended for a case filed by the maquinita owners in order to get a hundred or so machines back that are in police custody.

Despite his ouster, Exposito, former Maj. Al Alvarez and Exposito’s personal attorney Ruben Chavez sat in on a civil hearing last week between the city and the video machine owners.
The owners have sued the city seeking return of more than 100 machines seized by Exposito’s police officers. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Diane Ward refused to throw out the suit, and now an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled.

It was at this hearing that I finally got a chance to speak to the city attorney who's assigned to this case, George Wysong, about the city not paying the expert witness they had hired in order to examine the machines that they had in custody.  Mr. Wysong's explanation was that he wasn't going to rely on the expert testimony to win the case but instead was relying on a series of laws that basically stated that since the machines were contraband, the city had no obligation to return them to their owners.  He quoted case law from the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church case where the police had seized the followers marijuana and then didn't return it after the church members sued for replevin, once again the theory is that since the marijuana was illegal, the police couldn't return it to its owners.  


Mr. Wysong's theory kind of makes sense in this instance but Judge Diane Ward wanted more, essentially she wanted an expert to determine whether or not the machines in custody were illegal and therefore asked both sides, the maquinita owners and the City of Miami to hire experts to determine whether or not the machines in custody are indeed illegal.  That brings us back to the expert witness report that the city wouldn't pay for, perhaps if the city was armed with the report for this hearing, Judge Ward would have gone ahead and thrown out the maquinita owners replevin lawsuit.  No big deal I guess, the expert that the City of Miami had hired has already examined the one hundred and four machines in question, now it's up to the maquinita owners to hire an expert to examine the machines in custody.  Considering that each of these machines is worth anywhere from three to five thousand dollars, I doubt the owners will walk away from several hundred thousand dollars worth of gaming equipment, legal or not, now it becomes a case of expert witness vs. expert witness and to see who makes a more compelling argument as to the legality of these machines.


The funniest part of this whole encounter?  I asked City of Miami attorney George Wysong whether or not the city was going to pay the expert now for his report to which he responded...

"why when I can download it from your website for free?"

I have to hand it to Mr. Wysong, that was some funny shit!

Illegal gaming machines are illegal...

No shit?  Sounds like a pretty stupid title for today's post right?  Of course illegal gaming machines are illegal!  

In case you forgot, the expert witness who examined over a hundred of these illegal gaming machines (AKA maquinitas) concluded that not only were the machines indeed nothing more than slot machines whose outcome had nothing to do with the players skills and because of the way they were configured, they were designed to cheat the poor folks that were playing them.  From the report...

This morphing permits the machine's computer to defeat any attempt at skill, and to deliver an outcome that was chosen in advance by the computer. Not only is this machine designed and manufactured specifically for the purpose of gambling; it is also designed to cheat the customer.

OK, I'm sure by now you all get it and are sick of hearing about how the machines are illegal, etc, etc, etc...

Let's forget about the machines being illegal for a moment, forget about the fact that they're designed to screw the players and the fact that they circumvent any revenue generating taxing scheme for the city or state.  Back during the summer of 2010, City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado championed an ordinance to regulate coin operated amusement machines which in essence was a ploy to legalize the maquinitas that we've become so fond of talking about.  If you bought into Regalado's theory, since the maquinitas are nothing more than coin operated "amusement machines" rather than have them scattered about the city, his plan was to create a law that required each and everyone of these machines to be licensed and by doing so creating an additional revenue stream for the city.  Check out how he pitched it to the city commission back in June 24, 2010...

Mayor Tomás Regalado:  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission.  FR.2 is an ordinance on first reading.  I would tell you that this ordinance, the final product, is the result of several month [sic] working with the Law Department, with the Finance Department, and the Administration to have this ordinance in place.  The reason that we did a new approved moratorium on the sale of stickers or license for coin-operated machines -- and this moratorium will be in place until September -- is precisely because we went -- we were working on this ordinance and it needed a lot of research.  We met with the chief of Police.  We met with the Finance Department; of course, the Law Department was there.  We also met with the representative of Magic City Casino that will be opposing this ordinance.  However, I think that we need to hear from the Finance Department because what this ordinance does is rectify a process that has been wrong for the last years.  We -- if we pass this ordinance, we will know exactly where each machine is; now, we don't.  In the past, there were some machines that were seized, but at the end, the courts ruled one way or another.  And there's still hundreds of machines in the City of Miami.  

OK, so now the Mayor wants to lump together these maquinitas with all other types of coin operated machines and license them, therefore in his eyes, the maquinitas are no different than say a pinball machine or a coin operated PacMan machine.  He goes on...

Mayor Regalado: But if I may, Commissioner, 90 percent of the ordinance is to regulate the machines because now we don't know where the machines are.  Actually, I think the Manager went and look at a number of the machine and called the Finance Department, and he can -- they couldn't say where that machine was because it was one of the hundreds of the stickers that are running around.  If we do this ordinance, then we will know where each machine, each stickers belongs to, what address, and who pulled that permit.  If an inspector or a police officer goes and see that the machine has been altered, because it has to be altered to use that machine for gambling purposes, then there will be a civil fine of $500 to the person that operate the business.  And there's also a caveat that could be included that if a business is operating a gambling machine, then the City has the right to pull the occupational license, which is an extreme measure, but it's part of the regulation.  So the other thing is that now we do not have the manpower to monitor those machines.  They're everywhere.  But if we do this ordinance, then Finance will have the possibility of having their inspector checking each of the places and also checking occupational license, which many in the City don't have.  We have -- I mean, we have a list officially of 13 -- 14,311 occupational license for business [sic] in the City of Miami.  I imagine that there are more that don't have occupational license.  I've seen one, at least.  I've seen one business operator with no license at all.  And we do not have the manpower to go door-by-door.  But I just think that we have several options.  We have the options of keeping the moratorium, not selling any license; keeping the process as it is, selling $480 and you get all the stickers; or changing the Code so we can regulate more, and we could use the revenue to check on the machines.  Actually, we're not condoning or inciting this kind of practice because it's already there.  I mean, in the past, there were a group of police officers that every night went to cafeterias and they took down some of the machines.  Some of the people went to court.  City, I believe, won two cases.  City lost, as you know, several cases.  Many cases were dismissed.  So many, many cases were dismissed because of the arrests that were made that were not good arrests and all that.  So this is the intent to regulate.  

Whatever the fuck ever.  According to this new plan, the machines are all going to get licensed and not only will the city enjoy the revenues from these licenses but according the mayor, the city will also know where each and everyone of the machines are for whatever that's worth.   He concludes with this...

 And I do understand what you are going to hear from Magic City Casino.  You know, they have a casino, but it's different.  You get money and you get -- and the machines are not supposed to give you back.  It's illegal.  It's in the ordinance.  It's in the affidavit.  And anybody who does that will be fined and the machine will be confiscated.  So I just wanted to state that.  

Huh?  Does that make any sense to you?  Try it again...

And I do understand what you are going to hear from Magic City Casino.  You know, they have a casino, but it's different.  You get money and you get -- and the machines are not supposed to give you back.  It's illegal.

I'm not even going to try to make sense of that.  So let's disregard the fact that the machines the mayor is talking about in this ordinance are illegal and for the sake of argument lets say that they're nothing more than coin operated machines that are for amusement purposes only.  By licensing these machines and making their owners pay some sort of tax, in the eyes of our mayor and the City of Miami, these machines are now magically legal.  That's all well and good if you can overlook the fact that the mayor has essentially given a free pass to all the maquinita owners.  So what's this ordinance from nearly two years ago have to do with our story?  Old news you say?  Correct, it is old news, in fact the owners of these "maquinitas" have had two years to get licenses for their machines and therefore theoretically, the City of Miami by now has been collecting at least two years worth of license revenues from the machines that are littered all over the city.  


All good right?  All would be good if that was really the case, let's go back for a moment and take a look at those machines located in the first floor of the building that houses the Spanish radio station, 670 AM "La Poderosa" that we talked about a few days ago, if you remember, we found three "maquinitas" in the cafeteria that's located on the buildings first floor.  Take a closer look at the machines again and see if you can spot any of those coin operated amusement license decals that the mayor was championing back in the summer of 2010...

Would you look at that?  Not a single decal, sticker or any sort of license for these machines from the City of Miami!  In fact, the only sticker of any sort on these machines is this one...

Of course the machines are for amusement purposes only!

So there you have it, unless the City of Miami licenses are affixed beneath these machines, they appear to be operating illegally.  Even under the mayor's goofy licensing scheme where the machines would be legal, without the licenses whether they're games of skill or games of chance, they're 100% illegal because they're not properly permitted!  LOL!  So much for the mayor's ordinance and all the additional revenue it was supposed to bring the city...

In search of the elusive Maquinita....

Here we are talking about those pesky maquinitas again.  Their natural habitat always seemed to be in the nastiest neighborhoods of our lovely city, they were usually found in the back of cafeterias and bodegas in the lowest income areas, sometimes out back, hidden behind racks or sometimes even in hidden back rooms.


That's all changed now though, under Mayor Tomas Regalado's administration, the machines have now worked their way out of the shadows and are featured prominently in the businesses where they're located.  What with the lax (non existent) enforcement of these machines by local police, why hide them?  Why not put them front and center so as to attract as many customers as possible?


Case in point, the lovely building located at 330 SW 27th Avenue, home to Spanish radio station 670 AM "La Poderosa".  Now this isn't some dank building out in the middle of the hood, "La Poderosa" is located in a nice class "B" office building in a decent neighborhood right on a major thoroughfare, take a look for yourselves...

Now, consider what this radio station means to the community, on any given day you'll find a bevy of local politicians going in and out of this station, some for their regular radio shows while others, both local and national, make the obligatory stop in order to garner votes from the Hispanic community.  So whether it's local Mayor Regalado or his daughter Raquel or perhaps someone like Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, let's say they've been on the radio for an hour or so and they're ready to leave the station and on the way down they decide to stop by the cafeteria that's on the first floor and grab something to drink or perhaps something to eat. What they'll find is a nice quaint cafeteria with halfway decent food...

 So you grab something to eat, have a seat and 

SHAZAM!

So there you have it!  Illegal gaming machines right out in the open, under the City of Miami's current administration they've made their way out of the shadows and are now out front and center, in this case in plain view in a building where some of the most powerful people in our city and perhaps our nation regularly walk by them!


What I want to know now is just how long will it take before these gaming machines find their way into City Hall?

The expert analysis of the maquinitas...

Now that we've had a chance to look over the expert witness's analysis of the illegal gaming machines (AKA maquinitas) that were seized by the City of Miami PD in the maquinita raids under then police chief Miguel Exposito's reign, what conclusions can we draw?  The expert witness, D. Robert Sertell, examined all the different types and brands of machines and came to similar conclusions for the different machines.  Through various types of analysis, whether through video analysis, physical analysis of the machines electronics, photo analysis, or analysis of the algorithms that the machine runs on, without a doubt the findings were the same, take this excerpt from the report for example...

As the string of icons spins in front of the player, the pressing of the skill stop button causes the last icon to morph, or change into a different symbol than the one which is supposed to be displayed.  This morphing permits the machine's computer to defeat any attempt at skill, and to deliver an outcome that was chosen in advance by the computer.  Not only is this machine designed and manufactured specifically for the purpose of gambling; it is also designed to cheat the customer.

So not only are these machines designed "specifically for the purposes of gambling" but they're also designed to fuck the poor guy that's dumping his money into them!  Say what you want about casino's but at least legal gambling machines are highly regulated and are designed to be at least somewhat fair to the player, with the maquinitas it's all about fucking the customer as the owner of the machines can adjust how often the machines allow the player to win!  Again, from the report...

Because of its newer design, Golden Treasure Island employs an on-screen menu by which the operator can set the payout percentage.  The manual describes a procedure whereby the operator must first enter the password and then proceed to a menu screen called "SETUP".  Once within that setup screen, the manual shows the operator how to enter the "WIN RATE" mode.  The Win Rate screen permits the operator to select from among 6 different percentage choices.  This is the equivalent of having the operator utilize a dip switch for this purpose; simply a more modern technique.  The existence of such an arrangement, generally called reflexive percentaging, whereby the operator may command the computer to deliver a specific payout percentage to the customer, and may change it by simply flipping some switch levers, or by making an on screen menu selection, is proof that the game's outcome is determined by the computer, and that skill plays NO ROLE in whether the player wins or loses.  

OK, I think we've already established that the machines are a joke and that they're designed to fuck the people playing them, but here's where it gets better...

In a legal gambling jurisdiction, such as Nevada, New Jersey, or Mississippi, the discovery of a reflexive percentaging scheme in an acknowledged slot machine, would cause Gaming Inspectors to turn that machine off immediately, and would result in fines and disciplinary action for the casino responsible.

LOL WTF!  How do you like them apples!  Even if the "maquinita" in question were in a legal casino, because of the way they are designed, THEY WOULD STILL BE ILLEGAL!

And the final nail in the coffin...

The three elements of gambling are present in these machines.  I believe that each of these machines is a gambling device because (A) consideration is present in that the customer is required to pay something in order to play the game; (B) chance is present in that the customer is not able to actually predict or control the outcome of the game, the outcome of these games is determined overwhelmingly by chance; and (C) reward is present in that the customer may become entitled to receive something of value as a result of the outcome of the game.

So what have we learned from this report?  We now have an expert that confirms that the maquinitas are nothing more than slot machines (DUH) and the icing on the cake?  Even if these maquinitas were in a legal casino, because of the way the operator can manipulate the payouts, THEY'RE STILL FUCKING ILLEGAL!  So what happened to City of Miami mayor Tomas Regalado's assertions that these machines were for amusement purposes only?  We now know in fact that they're nothing more than illegal gaming machines whose sole purpose is to fuck the poor folks who play them and to line the pockets of the owners with tax free cash.

What's most upsetting about this mess is that the tax payers are still footing the bill for defending the city against the lawsuits brought forth by the machine owners and that we're still paying for storing the confiscated machines while the litigation is ongoing.  To add insult to injury, there hasn't been a single high level arrest regarding these machines, it seems to me everyone arrested to date has been a lowly store clerk or store owner that's gotten away with a slap on the wrist, add to that the way the powers that be at the city attorney's office tried to hide this report by not paying for it and you have taste of the shit sandwich that the Regalado administration is trying to shove down the taxpayers throat.