Weekly journal-miner., 1918-06-19
MACHINES UNDER BAN OF
 POLICE CHIEF
CITY AUTHORITIES PUT LID ON GAMING DEVICES AND WILL STOP PUNCH
 ARDS, POKER AND LADIES' BRIDGE PARTIES
(From Saturdays Daily)

Chief of Police B. B. Bloom yes
 terday afternoon injected big bunch
 of gloom into the lives of the local
 business firms which have been oper- ating slot machines of various sorts
 when he made the rounds of the city and directed that all such machines
 be put out of commission instanter. About Is or 20 places, such as drug
 stores, hotels, pool halls and cigar stores were visited by the chief and his assistants, and while several of the machine owners were inclined to question the right of the official to
 put the machines out of business,
 practically all of them removed the offending instruments to the rear part of the house and promised the chief
 that they would refrain from operat-
 ing them.
 Mir. Bloom took this step after a
 conference with Mayor Heap. It is
 said that some complaint had been
 lodged with the city authorities re-
 garding the number of machines
 which were being operated in the
 city, and the authorities began to
 search for some way to eliminate
 them. While there IS a State law which bans the slot machines, its
 status just at present is rather in-
 definite, many people believing that it has been suspended pending the submission of the matter to the peo- pie for referendum vote However,
 the mayor and the chief of police discovered that the City of Prescott had just the sort of law they wanted in old city ordinance No. 2, which was passed in 1898, or just 20 years ago. This law, strange to re- late, was passed in the days when gambling of all sorts was the gem eral thing in Arizona. Faro, roulette, policy, craps, etc, was all right in those days, but the innocent cigar machines and other forms of slot operated games of chance seemed to fall under the ban of the city council of that day, and a measure was enacted putting the machines out of business Like many other city or dinanceS, it was never enforced, and remained on the books probably be- cause everyone had forgotten about it. It was dug up yesterday, dusted off, and trottcd around the block a couple of times and then put into force, despite the opposition of sev- eral of the business firms which couldn't see the justice of suddenly enforcing law which had been un- used for more than 20 years.
 It is understood that the next thing to go will be the punch boards. No action was taken yesterday against this form of gambling, but it is said that the city authorities have given all of the punch board own CTS notice that the game will have to be eliminated in a month or so, and that they had better hurry up and dispose of such possessions.
 We are going right down the line in the matter of putting crimp in gambling of all sorts," said Mayor Heap to a Journal-Miner representa- tive yesterday evening. We are even going to put a kibosh on these afternoon bridge parties where the ladies win their silk stockings and their hand-painted chinaware. The fact that these forms of gaming have been allowed to go on uninterrupted since public gambling was outlawed is no reason why this condition shall longer prevail. and Chief Bloom is now under strict orders to bust up these amuscmcntS regardless of the howl that goes up. Phoenix and nearly every other city in the State . has put the lid on this sort of thing, . and the time when mother can spend her evening in bridge fight | trying to annex pair of $ silk . hose and father can go out and pur- chase stack of chips and sit in is over and gone and we must have it stopped at once"