Cherokee County sheriff’s investigators and authorities from the Oklahoma Tax Commission are looking into a handful of “illegal gaming machines” at local businesses.
According to Sheriff’s Capt. Bob Sanders, a compliance officer from the OTC alerted the sheriff’s office when she found the machines at two local stores.
Sanders described one of the machines as a “coin-pusher,” which allows users to drop a quarter into the machine in hopes of forcing more quarters out of the device as a “prize.”
The second machine is used to purchase phone cards, but also provides the chance for users to win some sort of prize in return, Sanders said.
State law considers those machines to be in a class of regulated gaming machines, Sanders learned. He said most machines that provide any item of monetary value in return for putting money into the machines are illegal – excluding those that give out “toys” or vending-machine items.
Sanders said machines placed in the Cherokee County businesses are owned by an Arkansas vendor. One store has removed its machine, and the second has cut power to its machines.
