Coin-Op Operators Granted Reprieve In Indianapolis Ruling

Coin-Op Operators Granted Reprieve In Indianapolis Ruling

Coin-Op Operators were given a reprieve from implementing new segregation laws for violent video games until a final verdict is reached in an injunction granted by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in an emergency motion passed on 18th October.

New laws were meant to come into place on September 1, 2000 requiring that violent video games were segregated from other machines and that people under 18 years of age were not allowed to play them without parental consent.

A lawsuit, filed on behalf of the AMOA, AAMA, IAMOA, BJ Novelty, Shaffer Distributing, Namco Cybertainment, and Cleveland Coin Machine by Washington D.C. attorney Elliott Portnoy, challenged elements of the new ruling and a hearing on September 15 was granted to allow both sides of the dispute to air their concerns.

The industry was struck a major blow on October 11, 2000 when a U.S. District Court judged denied an appeal made by the coin-op industry on the grounds that there was no difference between violence and obscenity. The Indianapolis Star quoted Judge David Hamilton after the ruling as saying: "It would be an odd conception of the First Amendment . . . that would allow a state to prevent a boy from purchasing a magazine containing pictures of topless women in provocative poses . . . but give that same boy a constitutional right to train to become a sniper at the local arcade without his parent's permission."

The Court of Appeals will now recieve the coin-op industry's legal arguments on November 2nd, followed by the submission of arguments put forward by the city attorney on November 27.