Cardinal Way: Civility Rules encourages constructive dialogue on difficult issues. You can participate in the project by filling out this survey that asks your views: Should these games be treated as gambling machines or just a type of video game? How should we weigh the interests of small businesses and potential customers against the hazards of gambling and other social interests?
See the other article in this package: “The bottom line is that my restaurant counted on ‘skill games’”
You can also still weigh in on last week’s question about taxes.
Lynchburg, January 2022: Armed assailants enter Click Spot Skill Gaming, assault an employee and steal cash.
Pittsylvania County, February 2022: An armed man robs a gray game venue, taking off with an undisclosed amount.
Richmond, March 2022: An argument over gaming machines between two men inside a K Food Store near Swansboro Elementary School leads to a shootout. Three other individuals were caught in the crossfire, including a teenage girl.
Gloucester, May 2022: Two assailants with a chainsaw break into a 7-Eleven to steal money from a gray machine, placing overnight workers and customers in the store in harm’s way and terrifying nearby residents.
Fairfax County, January 2023: In a span of four weeks, thieves targeted gaming machines at six separate 7-Eleven stores. Investigators said thieves are “… physically going in and removing these systems, but we’ve also seen them where they try to discreetly hide what they’re doing near these machines. You’ll see individuals loitering around these machines, tampering with them, and they’ll break into the machines and steal money.”
These are just a few of many recent examples from across Virginia where so-called gray or skill games have caused increases in violent crime that put people, including young children, in danger.
Local enforcement officials have taken note. According to an October 2022 study by the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), “[c]ommonwealth’s attorneys from multiple localities reported that crimes such as assault and robbery have increased at establishments with gray machines.”
As former law enforcement officers, we spent our careers putting the safety and best interests of Virginians first. We believe it is imperative that these machines not only remain illegal but be destroyed.
Whether a business owns one gray machine or ten, they lead to loitering, which causes security concerns, and can lead to crime in addition to making customers and staff feel unsafe. In Richmond, two major shootings in less than three months occurred at the very same convenience store. When Councilwoman Ellen Robertson led community members on a walkthrough of that same store, gray machines were found immediately upon entry.
The nature of these machines also makes the establishments sitting-duck targets for organized crime. Not only do they hold large amounts of cash, but they are also located in businesses that do not have the resources to hire private security to protect patrons in the store. It’s unfair and unsafe to place the financial burden of private security on these businesses, much less the burden of safety and security on busy store clerks or restaurant staff working at these locations.
Across Virginia, police departments have had to deal with increased illegal activity in the vicinity of these devices. In addition to the crimes committed at the actual convenience stores and fueling stations, officers have received increased calls about gamers trespassing on their properties. In some cases, those desperate to gamble at these machines are even knocking on doors in the middle of the night asking for money from nearby residents after gambling all of theirs away. This takes even more resources away from departments already struggling to keep up and draws those safeguarding our communities away to deal with a crime that individuals should never have had the opportunity to perpetrate.
In all other cases of gaming, Virginians have had an opportunity to make their voices heard. Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth all had a chance to accept or deny a licensed casino operator in their community through a citywide referendum. Yet, when it comes to these machines, residents have zero say in the matter, despite the fact they can turn a once-friendly corner market into a dangerous illicit gambling operation. And often, they target communities that can least afford them — showing up in low-income neighborhoods and adding a most unnecessary hurdle to escaping the poverty trap.
To us, it’s clear as day. If Virginia truly is the best place to live, work and raise a family, we must do everything in our ability to ensure it is the safest. And that starts with keeping these machines out of our Commonwealth.
T. Neal Morris is the former Danville police chief and is a past president of Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and Foundation.
CM Hess is the former major chief deputy sheriff in the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office. His law enforcement career spanned 24 years.