Oct 16, 2013 — by Karen DeWitt (NYS Capitol Correspondent) , in Albany, NY

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An American tradition (Picasa/© Bettmann/CORBIS) Smashing slot machines is an honorable American tradition. Leaders have happily applied the working end of a sledge hammer to them. “House of Fun” is a smashing slots game that has lately taken the people up with a storm. The amazing game gives you the insight to watch the real-life of Vegas slots that would make you feel. So if you are stuck at home amidst this pandemic season, you should. Wielding a sledgehammer, anti-gambling advocates took turns smashing up a Lucky 7 slot machine, at a park with the State Capitol in the background, as TV news cameras recorded the event.

Paul Davis, scholar at Institute for American values, smashes a slot machine. Photo: Matt Ryan, New York NOW

Oct 16, 2013 — Anti gambling activists took a sledgehammer to a slot machine in front of the New York State Capitol, to demonstrate their opposition a ballot amendment to legalize gambling casinos in New York.

Wielding a sledgehammer, anti-gambling advocates took turns smashing up a Lucky 7 slot machine, at a park with the State Capitol in the background, as TV news cameras recorded the event.

David Blankenhorn, with the Institute for American Values, organized the event.

“It felt great,” Blankehorn said. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”

Blankenhorn says his side of the fight doesn’t have any money to get their message across to voters. So he says for $340, he bought a slot machine on E-Bay, and organized the smashing party. He denies, though, that it’s merely a publicity stunt.

“This is an effort to try to get our argument out,” he said. “The research is very clear on the role of these machines and what these machines do.”

Blankenhorn says he’s reviving a decades-old tradition of politicians smashing slot machines. He stood beside a photo of New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia smashing a slot machine in the 1930s. LaGuardia warned New Yorkers that the slots preyed on them and took their money.

Today, New York’s top politicians support slot machines and other casino gambling. Governor Cuomo and the legislature are pressing for approval of a ballot measure to change the state’s constitution to allow up to seven new gambling casinos in the state. They say it will create thousands of jobs, increase state revenue and offset property taxes and provide funding for schools.

Blankenhorn and other opponents say the casinos also economically depress surroundings areas, create more problem gamblers, and become essentially a “regressive” tax on those in society least able to afford it.

“It’s a policy that takes from the have- nots and distributes it to the haves ,” said Blankenhorn. “There’s a good reason why our constitution prohibits this.”

The event attracted a few stares from state workers on their lunch hour, along with one heckler.

EJ McMahon, with the conservative think tank the Empire Center, also stopped by to watch. McMahon, who is not for or against gambling, questions however the rosy predictions made by state officials about job creation, property tax reduction, and more money for education.

Slot Machine Smashing

“I think it’s been grossly oversold,” said McMahon.

Governor Cuomo, who has so far not taken an actively public role in backing the gambling expansion, argues that gambling already exists in New York, and a no vote on the ballot amendment won’t change that.

“It’s not really gambling versus no gambling,” Cuomo said recently. “We already have gambling, we just don’t call it gambling.”

New York already has several casinos, run by Indian tribes. It also has exploited a loophole in the state’s current laws to offer what are termed video lottery terminals, which are essentially slot machines connected to the state’s legal lottery system.

And, even if the amendment fails at the ballot, Cuomo has already said he’ll authorize more of the slot like video lottery terminals at locations round the state.

Related Topics

albany · politics · election13 · gambling · casino · economy

It was almost 60 years ago when Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg started making surprise raids on gambling establishments in the 50’s and seized and smashed slot machines, rendering them to the point of which they were completely useless.

Grevemberg and his associates made 1,000 raids and destroyed 8,229 slot machines during 1952-1956 when Gov. Robert F. Kennon was the governor of Louisiana.

Gangster Frank Costello was forced out of the slot machine business in New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia destroyed the machines and pushed them into a watery grave in the 30’s.

Senator Huey P. Long sensing a chance to make some quick money offered Costello a deal, where he could set up his slot machines in Louisiana, with Long demanding ten percent of the profits.

That is how Louisiana became saturated with slot machines and Grevemberg was given the task of ridding the state of slot machines.

Former Louisiana governor, Edwin Edwards was a Crowley attorney at the time and argued that the slot machines were legal, since they were being taxed by the state. For more on the raids and the history of slot machines see this Eunice Today article:

http://www.eunicetoday.com/view/full_story/8851601/article-Slot-machine-raids-divided-citizenry–

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Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg shown smashing slot machines during a raid in the 50’s on a gambling establishment during the Gov. Robert F. Kennon administration.

Governor Earl K. Long took office in 1956 and ordered a stop to the destruction of slot machines. Little did Long or anyone else for that matter foresee that the gambling industry was down, but not down for the count.

Now it is almost 60 years later and slot machines are in operation, by the thousands in Louisiana casinos. There are now 22 casinos in operation currently in the state of Louisiana.

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With the proliferation of casinos today in Louisiana, the chances of slot machines being destroyed are slim and none. The taxes from the casinos are pouring into Louisiana coffers and any opposition to gambling casinos is probably a waste of time.

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So instead of smashing slot machines being smashed, they are kept in good repair, so the state of Louisiana can continue to reap tax dollars from their use.

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