Moxie Mania gets legal green light
Judge overrules State Liquor Authority on whether game is a gambling device
Moxie Mania is legal. A state judge in Albany County has thrown out a ruling by the State Liquor Authority that the touch-screen video games that had popped up in hundreds of Western New York bars last year were illegal gambling devices.
In November, the SLA board ruled that Moxie Mania, a complicated electronic version of tick-tack-toe that pays out money, was a game of chance rather than skill.
This made it a gambling device, meaning that it could not be operated in any of the state’s 27,000 licensed drinking establishments, the board said. The decision marked a reversal of an opinion issued earlier by the Liquor Authority’s attorney that said the game was legal.
The Georgia-based makers of Moxie Mania, who had relied on the lawyer’s opinion, took the board’s decision to court and quickly won a stay.
A hearing was held in January, and the decision by acting State Supreme Court Justice Roger D. McDonough was released Thursday, although it had been reached last Friday.
McDonough concluded that the SLA determination that the game was a gambling device was “irrational, arbitrary and capricious.”
He continued in his ruling: “Indeed, the court concludes that all of the verifiable record information before the court clearly supported a determination that the game was not a gambling device.”
The makers and distributors of Moxie Mania were thrilled with the news.
“We designed the game to be legal, we always knew the game was a legal game of skill, and now the court has agreed,” said Michael Pace, president of Pace-O-Matic, which produces the video games.
“We’re very happy,” said Lou Riggio, president of Excelsior Distribution in Kenmore, the main distributor of the game in the state. “It’s a big thing for small business. It’s unfortunate we had to go through all the legal ramifications, but we’re extremely happy, and we’re eager to move forward.”
At its peak last year, there were about 300 Moxie Mania machines in Western New York bars. But after the SLA ruling, about 120 tavern owners demanded that Excelsior remove the machines.
“It put a short-term dent into our business,” Riggio acknowledged.
An SLA spokesman said that the news about the court decision “will be presented to the members at the next board meeting for their review and consideration of whether the authority will appeal the decision.”
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