Casino regulators are cracking down on sketchy gaming facilities that are breaking the law by trying to imitate operations such as Chuck-E-Cheese and Dave and Busters.
Except for at the state’s four casinos and related racinos, Ohio law forbids people from operating games that do not rely completely on skill and that payout cash prizes.
But the state’s Casino Control Commission has seen an increase in so-called “skill game” parlors popping up around Ohio. The commission’s Andromeda Morrison says the commission is now creating more rules to license legitimate skill-game facilities and weed out the bad actors.
“With this licensing scheme it gives the state powers that it hasn’t had the entire time that these purported skill-game operators have been operating in order to target them and get them out of the state,” she said.
These establishments claim to be conducting games that take skill but the state maintains they're essentially slot machines.