Missouri Highway Patrol seizes more gaming machines from Springfield convenience store

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Missouri Highway Patrol executed another raid on a Springfield business, seizing 15 arcade-style gambling devices.

“A search warrant was executed on a business on West Kearney called AM PM Food Mart where 15 arcade-style illegal gambling devices were seized,” said Sgt. Mike McClure of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

It follows another raid at Lucky Lynns at Sunshine and Glenstone. Investigators seized 35 machines Monday. So how many more could follow? Sgt. Mike McClure says the goal of the raids is to help educate people on the Missouri statues of such machines.

”Those machines are illegal, and our job is to bring people into compliance, and in this case not necessarily enforcement, but to educate people on the illegality of these machines,” said Sgt. McClure.

The owner of AM PM Food Mart convenience store says he “obtained his machines legally from Torch Electronics.”

Torch faces charges in Linn County, Mo. for promoting gambling. In a statement, Torch Electronics Spokesman Gregg Keller said the “confiscated machines are completely legal games,” and that the Missouri Highway Patrol was “harassing a law-abiding family owned business.”

The second consecutive raid has many wondering what’s next.

Nick Devereaux works at Wok on Scenic next to the Lucky Lynns second location. And he has seen similar devices being used.

”I’ve been over there a couple times to bring orders in, and there’s like three or four rooms with computers and slot machines, or what appear to be slot machines,” said Devereaux.

Devereaux says he’s been suspicious of Lucky Lynns since he started working.

”They say its like online gaming, so I’m assuming that’s like their prizes for the online gaming,” said Devereaux.

Torch Spokesman Gregg Keller says he believes the machines are legal because they include a pre-reveal feature, allowing players to see if they will win or not. He says this does not constitute “a gambling device that includes either skill or chance” as it is described in the Missouri Constitution.

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