So Long! Slot Machines – 1950
Olsen Orders County Attorneys To Confiscate All Slot Machines
Helena, July 1 (AP)
The attorney general Saturday night directed the state’s 56 county attorneys “to immediately order confiscation of all slot machines and the elimination of all gambling.”
Arnold H. Olsen’s order was contained in telegrams sent to all Montana county attorneys Saturday night.
The telegrams, all identical, said in part:
“The courageous decision of the supreme court (Friday) in the (Lewistown) Joyland case is most encouraging. With this clarification of the law there can be no further delay in the local prosecution of the gambling laws.
“Pursuant to the supreme court decision you are directed to immediately order confiscation of all slot machines and the elimination of all gambling in your county.”
The attorney general’s order to county attorneys followed a few minutes after he told the Associated Press that co-operation by local law enforcement agencies is all that is needed to wind up the state’s victory over slot machines.
Inactivity of some officials, Olsen went on, has been blamed on grounds the law was confused.
Friday’s decision in the Joyland case “absolutely eliminates any such confusion and declares all slot machines unlawful.
“The only goal remaining to be accomplished is that all local enforcement officers do their jobs and eliminate the gambling which, in several communities, is obvious to everyone.
“Co-operation of local law enforcement agencies is now all that is necessary to complete the victory.”
After returning from Butte, where he attended funeral services for Phil O’Donnell, assistant attorney general who died here Tuesday night, Olsen said:
“I am most gratified by the courageous decision of the Montana supreme court . . . This is a culmination of a year and a half of constant effort on the part of my office, with the assistance of many local law enforcement officers throughout the state.
“I regret only that our friend and able counselor, Phil O’Donnell, could not witness this success which in large measure is due to his unceasing effort. While numerous local officials also contributed to this victory, some have excused inactivity on the ground that the law was confused.”
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on July 2, 1950.
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Slot Shutdown Begins In Missoula
A survey of 24 so-called nonprofit social clubs in downtown Missoula Saturday night showed that 16 still were operating their slot machines, six places had them taken out or stored away, one had the machines turned to the wall and another place had them covered up.
The proprietors said they had not been informed of an order Saturday night by Attorney General Arnold H. Olsen that Montana’s 56 county attorneys take immediate action to halt operation of all slot machines.
County Attorney Robert F. Swanberg said early Sunday:
“Concerning Attorney General Arnold H. Olsens’s telegram, I have not received any such telegram and to my knowledge neither has any other official in the county.
“To say the least, I think it is strange that it should be released to the press before being dispatched.
“Accordingly, I withhold either comment or action until I have seen the telegram.”
Religious, charitable and fraternal groups, sometimes considered to be separate from nonprofit social clubs under slot machine laws, also were continuing to operate their slot machines.
The Knights of Columbus club, 312 East Pine street, the only religious club in the city, said it was continuing to operate the machines.
The Labor club, 208 East Main street, operated by labor unions of the city, had its slot machines going.
O. J. Bue, president of the Western Montana Press-Radio club, 123 West Front street, said slot machines were still operating and added that “as far as we know at the present moment, we are operating lawfully. When we hear from the county attorney, naturally, we will abide by what he says.”
The story was the same at all the nonprofit clubs operating the machines. They were just waiting for the “official word” to take them out.
When the proprietors were asked what they would do with the machines after they were declared illegal, various replies were made.
“Take them home and let the kids play with them. That’s what I’ll do,” said one.
“I’ll just let them sit around and I’ll admire them,” said another manager, smiling and envisioning the day when they might be made legal again.
“I’ll keep mine and wait for election day again, when I hope they’ll be made legal again,” was another comment.
One proprietor admitted that they would hurt his business tremendously, but that he was nevertheless glad to see them outlawed finally.
Various amusement companies already had removed the machines from some establishments.
Several places stopped operating their machines in order to evade paying a federal tax on the machines which became due after midnight Saturday. Operation of the machines after midnight would make the operators liable to pay the license of $100 per machine, regardless of coin size, according to Floyd Eaheart, deputy collector of internal revenue in Missoula.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on July 2, 1950.
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Slot Machines Destroyed
106 Slot Machines, Other Devices Seized, Destroyed
Sledge hammers and pickaxes Monday evening permanently took “the smile off” 106 Missoula slot machines. The action, which left the shiny machines in ruins at the foot of a pile of garbage at the city dump, followed seizure of the machines about noon on order of Attorney General Arnold H. Olsen.
Destroyed as well by deputy sheriffs at the dump were 15 “electrically operated gambling devices” of the type known as “racehorse machines.”
Attorney general’s officers said in Missoula that the machines “probably constituted the biggest collection of contraband thus far obtained in an antigambling campaign being waged in Montana.” The attorney general said the machines confiscated in a storeroom at the rear of the county welfare office, 424 North Higgins avenue, were worth more than $30,000.
Monday evening with 106 of Missoula’s slot machines destroyed, Mr. Olsen placed responsibility for destruction of others on Missoula county officers. (According to figures from the county treasurer’s office there had been 362 machines licensed to operate in the county.)
The attorney general, accompanied by his first assistant, Charles Huppe, and two investigators, came here Monday morning and acting on a tip, discovered the slot machines and racehorse machines in the rear of the county welfare office. He then ordered Sheriff Robert D. MacLean and Chief of Police James J. Doyle to seize the machines. Meanwhile, members of the board of county commissioners, on being interviewed by the attorney general, admitted they had on July 10 subleased a storeroom in the back of the welfare office to the Western Amusement company, operated by K. L. Staninger.[1] Return of $30 per month from the sublease was being used to defray the $150 monthly the county pays for lease of the entire quarters.
The machines were loaded into two large vans during the afternoon and moved to the west end of the courthouse to await legal decision regarding their disposal. About 4:30 p.m. District Judge Albert Besancon ordered that both the machines and the stands for them be destroyed by Sheriff MacLean. The sheriff was ordered to use his own discretion in disposal of the machines; but the court ruled that they must be put in such condition so as to be worthless for further use in gambling.
Before ordering that the machines be destroyed Judge Besancon asked if there was anyone in the courtroom who owned the machines. There were no answers to his question. The complaint to get rid of the slot machines named the 106 slot machines and 15 racehorse machines as defendants, it being pointed out that had a person been named defendant, the slot machines would have had to be kept as evidence. Officials of the attorney general’s office said that had anyone admitted owning the slot machines they would have been arrested and charged with possessing them.
At 5:30 Mr. MacLean gave the order and minutes later a caravan of three vans – a third van had meanwhile picked up the remaining machines – headed for the dump. Several hundred cars of Missoulians had preceded the vans there. The racehorse machines were disposed of first, with hammers smashing glass and twisting wiring. Then the ruins were pushed over the edge of the dump and ignited. While the machines were burning, the deputies went to work on the slot machines. Some of the machines still contained coins and these had to be taken out before the machines could be disposed of, according to an order by Judge Besancon who watched the proceedings at the dump. He said the coins are to be placed in the county treasurer for use in the school fund.
“Throw us a fresh one,” said the men after a twisted machine had been pounded out of shape and the three reels bashed in. “Give it to them,” said someone in the crowd. Youths, their faces covered with cardboard, tried to get near enough to the burning racehorse machines to salvage some of the wiring. Deputies were continually chasing away boys who got close in, better to see the proceedings. “That’s it,” said someone standing in the smoke as a pickax landed hard, smashing a machine’s three windows.
The work of demolishing the machines was slow and the deputies worked until after dark.
The machines evidently came from various parts of western Montana. Chalked on a few of them were such names as: “Fred,” “Turf,” “Phil”, which officials assumed to be Philipsburg and “Mint-Pol” which was assumed to be Polson and “Fred.” (sic). Horse shoe lucky pieces found on a machine carried the name of “Rainbow Bar and Café.”
The attorney general had nothing to say about plans for further raids of this nature except that his office intends to continue turning over information about slot machine law violations to the local authorities whenever it discovers them. He declared that possession of slot machines is unlawful and that the statute says that people in possession are to be arrested.
The article above appeared in The Daily Missoulian on July 18, 1950.
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An article quoted below from The Daily Missoulian in 1949 addressed the profitability of the slot machine industry:
Slot Machine Racket Charged
Sacramento, Cal., March 11. (AP)
The existence of a nation-wide slot machine racket with a fabulous “take” estimated at two billion dollars annually and around $400,000,000 in the kitty for bribing public officials, was charged Friday in a report by the California commission on organized crime.
Underworld corruption spreading from New York to California and even having a vague hookup with the old Murder, Inc., gang was attributed to the slot machine industry’s operators in the scathing report.
The commission said it had sent investigators to Chicago to attend the Coin Machine institute convention January 17, 18 and 19 and they brought back a mass of revealing information.
“From the extraordinarily frank discussions of corruption, the commission’s investigators ascertained that it is the common practice of slot machine operators throughout the country to pay 10 to 20 per cent of their gross profits for protection and graft . . .” the commission report said.
“If the gross ‘take’ of the national slot machine racket is in the neighborhood of two billion dollars annually – as it probably is – it is evident that 20 per cent of that amount or $400,000,000, is being spent annually by the slot machine racketeers for bribery and corruption of public executive officers.”
The commission said “juke box” operators and distributors often “front” for slot machine racketeers. The activities of the “juke box” operators and distributors are directed by the Coin Machine institute, according to the commission.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on March 12, 1949.
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