Group sues to stop Missouri attorney general’s gambling machine enforcement campaign

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A group calling itself the Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group is suing the Missouri attorney general and other state officials to stop an enforcement campaign targeting businesses that operate video gambling machines.

The group filed its lawsuit in Cole County last week, saying that Attorney General Catherine Hanaway and Missouri Alcohol and Tobacco Control overstepped their authority in seizing video gambling machines and prosecuting owners of stores that use them.

The petition filed Friday in Cole County is similar to a lawsuit against Hanaway filed June 18 by Turners Bar & Girl. MOLAG's lawsuit states that the group wants the issue of whether video gambling machines are legal under state law to be decided by courts before seizures and prosecutions continue.

The lawsuit also takes issue with Alcohol and Tobacco Control's use of the liquor license process to target businesses with gambling machines.

MOLAG's petition says it will not identify the group's members becuase of threats of criminal charges, civil litigation and seizure of equipment.

At least two Mid-Missouri convenience store owners -- Anthony Gier of Eldon and Keith Winscott of Ashland -- have been charged criminally after video gambling machines were seized from their stores.

Civil asset forfeiture actions against each owner were also filed in state court. The Boone County Sheriff's Office was in possession of machines from Winscott's Woody's Bar and Grub, along with aboiut $8,000 in seized cash, as of the filing in late May.

The machines along with about $17,000 in cash seized from one of Gier's Eagle Stop store was in the Columbia Police Department's possession.