What Are COAMs In Colorado And How Do these cards Differ From Wagering Machines?

Endroit Operated Amusement Machines (COAMs), also known as coin-operated machines, represent a gray area in states where gambling is concerned. While this may not be as true in Texas as it is in other states like Georgia, understanding their place in the gambling landscape is important, especially as Texas’ gambling future is being discussed in the upcoming legislative session.

COAM is the legal term used to describe a variety of machines that many people are already familiar with. These machines are played for “amusement, entertainment, or skill.” From jukeboxes to classic arcade-style games, most of us have inserted coins into COAMs over the years.

The key feature, as the name suggests, is that all COAMs can be operated by inserting a coin, token, metal slug, bill, electronic card, or check, as outlined in the Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2153.

As Texas navigates its path towards legalized gambling, it is important to understand the history of COAMs in the Texas legal code. This will help distinguish what qualifies as a COAM and clarify when COAMs cross the line from legitimate amusement to illegal gambling machines.

Typically the 1969 Snack Machine Regulating Act

The machines that did not fall within the scope of Chapter 2153 were referred to as “service coin-operated machines” as defined by the Code. These included:

• Payphones
• Pay toilets
• Washer/dryers
• Other machines that dispense only a product

Owners of these service machines were not subject to the same taxes, registration fees, and penalties as owners of machines that dispensed or provided amusement, skill, or pleasure.

Take it to be able to court

In brief, it explained that an establishment owner could not also own, for example, a jukebox or an arcade machine. This, as anyone who has ever been in an establishment could imagine, did not sit well with bar owners.

So, in 1972, a group of bar owners led by Harry Thompson, a tavern owner, took Robert S. Calvert, the Comptroller of Public Accounts for the State of Texas and member of the Texas Amusement Machine Tax, to court. The bar owners claimed that the VMRA was a constitutional violation.

They argued that, even though they possessed COAMs, they were not “dealing” with them. They, as bar owners, placed them in their establishments to enhance the ambiance. The machines were merely incidental and not the “business” of the bar owners.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Thompson and Co., and in 1974, the VMRA was deemed unconstitutional. The VMRA was then repealed from the statutes. The Texas Amusement Machine Commission continued its other regulatory duties until it was formally abolished in 1988.

Colorado Occupations Coupon Chapter 2153

In 1999, Texas revisited the regulations regarding COAMs with the inclusion of Chapter 2153 in the Occupations Code. This chapter, first and foremost, established the State Comptroller as the chief administrator of COAM regulations.

It went on to delineate the types of machines that would qualify as COAMs and those that wouldn’t. It also made specific provisions of overarching laws regarding COAMs, in accordance with the Texas Penal Code on Gambling.

Your potty is a product and not of pleasure

Typically the machines of which did not the fall season within the grasp of Phase 2153 have been what the Coupon called “ service coin-operated machines. ” These provided your:

• Payphones
• Pay back toilets
• Washer/dryers
• Other equipment that eliminate only a product

Keepers of these product machines weren’t subject to identical taxes, signing up fees, together with penalties for the reason that owners involving machines of which dispensed or perhaps afforded activity, skill, or perhaps pleasure.

Precisely what exactly can be COAMs?

Being the code describes, the term Coin-Operated Amusement Equipment includes:

• A marble machine
• Marble table equipment
• Marble firing machine
• Tiny racetrack equipment
• Miniature footballing machine
• Tiny golf equipment
• Miniature bowling machine
• Pool or pool area game
• Machine or device that dispenses goods or merchandise or plays music in association with or as well as dispensing skill or pleasure
• Excludes amusement equipment designed specifically for a child

Within this regulation, standard arcade machines were also included.

In all of the above cases, COAMs are entirely legal under Texas law, assuming that all fees and permits are paid and displayed. However, the Texas Penal Code also makes additional stipulations regarding COAMs.

Clean stipulation involving COAMs together with gambling units

Most notably, there is clear agreement that anyone who “plays and bets for money or other things of value on any game played with cards, dice, balls, or any other gambling device” may be acting unlawfully unless:

“the contrivance rewards the player exclusively with non-cash merchandise or tokens that have a wholesale value available from a single play of the game or device of not more than ten times the amount charged to play the game or device once, or $5, whichever is less.”

In short, none of these games qualify as COAMs:

• Slot machines
• Keno
• Video card games

Therefore, these are considered illegal gambling devices prohibited in Texas. Thus, the distinction is quite clear in Texas between what most people recognize as a casino-style gaming machine and an arcade machine or coin-operated bar game.

The continuing future of gambling in COAMs

The 2023 Texas Legislative Session will likely see its biggest push ever to legalize gambling in various forms. One of the main pushes comes from a Super PAC, led by the family that owns the Sands hotel in Las Vegas.

Sheldon Adelson, former Sands CEO, died in 2021 and is survived by his spouse and current CEO of the PAC, Miriam Adelson. The PAC’s goal is the construction of four casino resorts in four major Texas areas: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

Should this legislative push gain traction, you can bet that rows of Vegas-style slot machines will be on display, along with online casinos in Texas.