editors note: Worlds of Games does not manufacture the machines pictured. The company maintains the legality of all of their products and welcomes everyone to learn more at www.worldsofgamesllc.com. Their machines serve as a vending device for phone cards, baseball cards and other products and this is a method of entry into a sweepstakes, according to CEO Keith Heflin. The company even offers a free entry into the sweepstakes by calling 1-800-762-0015. Further, Jim Haynes has been retired from the amusement business for 2 years now. Look for more in the next issue of The Pulse.

Video slot machines are common in Murfreesboro’s gas stations, bars and tobacco shops and have been for decades. The general public has the sense that they are illegal, that at least paying out money is illegal, yet players win and lose cash at dozens of machines around town.

Yet, the discussion about gambling occurring in Murfreesboro’s public places is a relative whisper. Many shopkeepers say the machines are for “amusement only,” but reports of gambling winnings and losses abound.

A casual new player at the Church Street Raceway pushes the buttons on one of the machines, watches the fruit and 7s spin, accumulates credits and leaves the store with a few extra dollars in his pocket, as if the transaction was for no more than a cup of coffee.

“We had a guy win $250 today and we paid him right here,” said a clerk in the BP across from Kroger on Middle Tennessee Boulevard, evidently one of many local places here to satisfy your gambling desires.

The gentleman working at the Raceway said he paid out $770 to one lucky winner a few weeks ago.

However, according to the Murfreesboro Police Department, this activity clearly violates the law.

“It is illegal to pay off on those,” said MPD Major Clyde Adkinson of the video machines. “They’re not illegal to own or play, but it is illegal to pay off.

“When people complain about them paying off, we certainly have our vice and narcotics unit follow up on those,” he continued, but added the department receives very few reports and that “you have to witness the payoff in order to make an arrest, which is hard to do.”

However, one gas station clerk said he believed the payouts were legal, his boss told him so, and even pays game winners money with police in the store.

“I do it all the time and they don’t say a word about it. If it were illegal the cops would do something like arrest the guy who owns the machines and pays us our cut,” the clerk said boldly.

Many store owners seem to have little fear of state law. In reality, they probably have little reason to worry. Local law enforcement officers say it’s not exactly their main objective to stop the gaming.

“As long as no one’s complaining to the chief, and we’ve got no one out killing people over the money they’re losing, then it’s kinda looked at as water under the bridge,” one MPD officer said. “What’s the big deal if some idiots want to lose their welfare checks or drug money?”

Hitting it big?

National research indicates that poor and uneducated people gamble, and lose, much more than the educated wealthy. Sure, it’s their decision to play the games, but isn’t that why states pass laws to prevent people from gambling and harming themselves? Scoring big is the longshot that drives gamblers, but at times, even when people do “hit the jackpot” in the underground video community, they’re not guaranteed a payoff. At least one local player found all isn’t quite fair in the local gambling machine scene.

This man who frequents the machines, and wished to remain nameless as a matter of protection from the “gambling godfathers,” says he was at the Kwik Sak on Northfield and Memorial a few years back (the store is now under new ownership and no longer displays the machines), where he normally played the machines, and that he had a “real good run and won $2,700.” When it was time to get paid, the store attendant sent him to Haynes Amusement on Broad Street and Thompson Lane to collect from Jim Haynes. Haynes reportedly told the man to “get lost because you can’t prove that you won it. If you can prove it I’d pay it.”

The Power Players

A former owner of Past Time Barber Shop said he paid out at his machines decades ago.

“As long as the good old boys keep control, things will stay the same,” he said. “Change is not on the agenda . . . as long as you keep the right guy’s machines in your establishment and until the state tries to step in and mess things up, it’ll remain a great place for a man to do business.”

Ten years ago, Haynes told a local proprietor (who also wishes to remain nameless) interested in placing machines in his business that if you have any trouble from the cops and you use his machines, he “makes the trouble go away.”

“This is my town and I make the rules,” Haynes said. Use his machines and “everything is covered, protections are in place.”

The manufacturer of the machines at Shelbyville’s Worlds of Games confirmed, “Yes, it’s true, Murfreesboro belongs to Haynes,” and said that for the price of $25,000 per 100,000 people in a town, someone could “own other towns.” He proceeded to break out a map and show the different cities “they owned” and would be willing to sell to us if someone were to pay their “ransom.”

The Law

Aggravated gambling promotion is a Class E felony under Tennessee Code Annotated; a person commits this offense where he “knowingly invests in, finances, owns, controls, supervises, manages or participates in a gambling enterprise (two or more people regularly engaged in gambling promotion).”

Interestingly, TCA also states that players, and even people to whom losing players owe money, have the right to sue to get back gambling losses.

Yet some of the local powers that be have traditionally not had much respect for gambling law in the first place.

“Who is the state to tell the business owners they can’t provide the answer to their request (to gamble)?” the former Past Time owner said. “This is our town and we’ll do with it as we see fit, state law be damned.”

Though not exactly legal, many in the area still see gambling as accepted, as some in the local gaming machine playing circuit refer to Murfreesboro as “Little Vegas.”

“Your loss is the Haynes of this world’s gain and they’re friends with the guys that run this town and everybody stays happy that way. That’s the way Murfreesboro is and has been and it ain’t gonna ever change,” a local police officer said. “It’s beyond our control and we accept it as cops around here.”

Have you won or lost money playing these machines? What do you think about the matter? Where are the best payouts!? Post your opinions below.