Thus the illicit operation in private clubs and markets may be 10 times larger than the state's network of legal machines. The state-licensed machines return 92 percent of money to players as winnings. The state gets no proceeds from this loot. Although Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, was a video poker machine distributor, he alone couldn't stop all of officialdom from looking at the topic. Other factors are involved.
Proprietors click off the credits and pay cash winnings - in direct violation of state law.
The only way police could stop the racket would be to send undercover officers to play and collect winnings, then arrest the proprietors and seize the machines. But police aren't allowed to enter private clubs unless invited by owners. Ban the machines totally. That's what Kansas and Massachussets did. But a ban still wouldn't end West Virginia play because the 3,000 state-licensed machines presumably would continue running.