Games of skill issue raised before County Council
By Kathleen Folkerth
DOWNTOWN AKRON — Summit County Council members are concerned about “games of skill” operators in the Akron area but aren’t sure what to do about them yet.
The issue came up before Council during its July 23 meeting when George Pounders, of Springfield, spoke before the group to ask it to act.
“We have an influx of games of skill and chance,” he said. Pounders added he’d like to see the county levy a fee on each machine in operation and then put that money toward the schools and safety forces.
Council attorney Regina Hanshaw said the staff has been looking into games operators for a while.
“The attorney general’s
office has volunteered to review
the machines at the cost of the manufacturer to determine
if they are really games of skill,” Hanshaw said.
“We plan on having a meeting with the sheriff
to determine what can be done on a county level.”
Council member Paula Prentice
(D-District 8) and Council President Nick Kostandaras
(D-District 1) both said the county should look into
the idea of licensing and charging a fee per machine.
“Tallmadge charges $100
a machine,” Prentice said. “We need to look
at that.”
Councilman Tim Crawford (D-District
7) said Barberton and the Kenmore area of Akron
have seen a proliferation of the
games stores in recent months. He said there are at
least 15 of the businesses in his district alone. This
year has also seen the storefronts open in the Merriman
Valley and on West Market Street just west of Wallhaven.
In a follow-up conversation,
Crawford said he thinks the games of skill storefronts
are bad for neighborhoods.
“The biggest concern is
they prey upon the poor people,” Crawford said.
“You don’t find people who are of upper
income going into these. They’re the same as these
check-cashing places.”
He said in the past, operators
have demonstrated the games for members of Council in
an effort to show that they are games of skill, rather
than games of chance, which would make them gambling
machines.
“They said if you have
the skills you can beat the machine,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s true personally.
They are gambling devices. We need a court ruling that
says they are gambling devices and then we can put some
controls on them.”
Crawford said he’s not
sure that taxing the businesses per machine is the way
to eliminate the problem. “It’s
not really solving the problem,” he said. “Eliminating
them is solving the problem. Just making them pay the
fees won’t solve the problem. It might take them
out of places that have one or two. How high do you
put the fee or tax on them to try to eliminate them?”
In other business, Council also
heard from Summit County Clerk of Courts Dan Horrigan,
who spoke about legislation introduced during the meeting
to allow payments with credit and debit cards for services
in the legal and title divisions.
“We are the most retail
of the county offices,” Horrigan
said. “We’d like to make it more convenient.”
If Council eventually approves
the request, Horrigan said proposals would be sought
and the issue would come before Council again when a
contract is ready.
Council also heard first reading
of several pieces of legislation, including a resolution
that will seek the Ohio Department of Transportation’s
help in determining the speed limit for a section of
Medina Line Road in Copley.
According to the legislation,
engineering and traffic investigations performed by
Summit County Engineer
Greg Bachman show that the current speed limit of 55
mph, from the Norton corporation limit at Greenwich
Road to Copley Road, may be greater than is reasonable
or safe.
The engineer’s office would
like to see the speed limit decreased to 45 mph, which
would result in a consistent speed limit from Wadsworth
Road to Everett Road.
Council’s meeting marked
the end of its summer recess. In attendance was newly
appointed Summit County Executive Russell Pry.
Kostandaras welcomed Pry to the
meeting.
“We all pledge to work
closely with the executive and likewise he said he would
like to work closely with us,” Kostandaras said.
Summit County Council is scheduled
to meet for committee meetings July 30 at 4:30 p.m.
in Council Chambers on the seventh floor of the Ohio
Building, 175 S. Main St.
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