Buying a gaming machine for your home

I am interested in getting a video poker machine for my home, I think it would be a neat thing to have and practice on. The website ohiogaming.com sells them, anyone have any experience with these? Is there a way to login to the system and alter the pay tables or make the machine able to dispense/hold coins? I would not run a machine out of my house for people to gamble on but it would be a neat thing to have. If you go to http://www.ohiogaming.com/videopokermachine.htm there is a game on the second screen shot down called Wizard of Odds, I think thats interesting!

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

I am interested in getting a video poker machine for my home, I think it would be a neat thing to have and practice on. The website ohiogaming.com sells them, anyone have any experience with these? Is there a way to login to the system and alter the pay tables or make the machine able to dispense/hold coins? I would not run a machine out of my house for people to gamble on but it would be a neat thing to have. If you go to http://www.ohiogaming.com/videopokermachine.htm there is a game on the second screen shot down called Wizard of Odds, I think thats interesting!

Your local jursisdiction might or might not care. If you allow it to take, hold, and pay coins IMHO you would be walking a thin line. Even if it is in your house it would be "possession" with possible intent. DA might say, "So, son, what bar were you fixing to put it in?" Same as having a bag of dope?

On "Pawn Stars" they mentioned that having a roulette wheel in some state (NY I think) could get you in trouble with the law.

Now, I doubt anything would ever come of it, but a cursory check w/o giving your name would be a good idea.

Well I live in San Francisco, I see your point but it would be such a cool thing to have! I am curious to know about anyone else that has thought about getting one of these toys.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

Well I live in San Francisco, I see your point but it would be such a cool thing to have! I am curious to know about anyone else that has thought about getting one of these toys.

I agree 100% on the coolness factor, but becoming a guest at San Quinten is a steep price to pay for "cool" :-)

You might consider asking on LinkedIN. I always get good answers there and you can limitg your question to CA only. My best guess is you can have it but would have to modify it not to take cash or allow payouts.

An old friend of mine had an IGT slot machine in his basement, i think it was a Double Diamond machine. He had to jump through some hoops to get it here in Indiana. I think he had to have it actually shipped to Kentucky, and then he picked it up and drove it from there. It most certainly isn't legal, as its an actual coin-in/coin-out. Though only friends of his play it when over hanging out, so I doubt the authorities would ever even bother you about it. Just know, that there is a good possibility that its not legal to possess/operate.

I naively think you could get by with it by making it clear that no one is actually gambling on it; i.e., that no one actually wins or loses any money. One way would be to keep a bucket of quarters next to it and let people use them for the novelty of playing the game on the machine. Payouts go back into the bucket. I used to do a similar thing with a novelty gumball machine in my office. I kept a cup of pennies next to it. Gumballs or skittles or whatever I had it stocked with were free, but you had to run a penny through it to get the stuff out. It was part of the experience. Periodically, I would empty the coin box and transfer the pennies back to the cup.

Operating a residential slot machine in that manner should provide the coolness and the entertainment for your friends, while any hotshot prosecutor with a burr up his backside would just let it go, realizing that he could never actually convict you of an offense. (I expect any judge -- and certainly the press -- would laugh at him.) I have friends in VA who have an operating slot machine in their basement. I think they do actually let guests play/gamble, but it's really there for their own entertainment between visits to Las Vegas.

Well this is the point, a fun decoration to have. I would use it for practice, I hardly ever use my wii, this would be a good alternative now the trouble comes with first getting $2000 then making sure it is programmed the right way, apparently these things are all controlled by chips, I thought there would be a keyboard and a OS inside to change stuff.

As far as I know you cannot buy slot machines in California. I know I looked into picking up a pachi slot and all the ebay sellers had california as one of the states that they couldn't sell to. Not sure about video poker, but I think some slots are modified to only take tokens. This may add an additional expense, but could provide a little protection if you were somehow caught with it

Well, in California, you can only own slot machines older than 25 years. <IANAL>I THINK this refers to date of manufacture, not copyright. I'm reasonably sure that video poker qualifies as a slot machine, since it's not expressly excluded from the definition (unlike pinball machines, which are).</IANAL> This pretty much nixes all but the oldest video poker machines. Definitely nothing you'd see in Vegas right now, since I've not seen anything other than Game King and Player's Edge machines, and even the earliest Player's Edge machines postdate 1985.

From my experiences with MAME and several Player's Edge Plus ROM sets, you CANNOT change paytables unless you get a different ROM set that's programmed with a different paytable. This is probably not a comprehensive list, but it should give you the general idea.

As far as practice goes, what the WoO has if you dig around is just amazing, with training features and more [you need to dicker with it], such as

https://wizardofodds.com/play/videopoker

Thought I would bring this up in case you or someone didn't know. I'll grant you some of your practice needs to be on the real thing.

In California, check out L.A. Slot Machine Co. in Redondo Beach. Several IGT models (all 25 years+ old, to comply with the law) are available.

Quote: Ayecarumba

In California, check out L.A. Slot Machine Co. in Redondo Beach. Several IGT models (all 25 years+ old, to comply with the law) are available.

Nice pics on that site. TV Dice looks fun!

If I am going toget one Im gonna fly to Ohio and UHaul it back!

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

If I am going toget one Im gonna fly to Ohio and UHaul it back!

Sounds like an expensive freight option: one-way plane ticket plus one-way truck rental plus driving time vs. UPS ground. Guess it works for you, but I would try a different way myself.

Quote: Doc

Sounds like an expensive freight option: one-way plane ticket plus one-way truck rental plus driving time vs. UPS ground. Guess it works for you, but I would try a different way myself.

Way expensive. Knowing what I do about LTL I'd bet you could get it moved for about $350 or less.

Yeah but if its technically illegal in CA I doubt they can ship it here, so that's why I need to go pick it up! First I need to come up with about $3,000! Any suggestions?

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

Yeah but if its technically illegal in CA I doubt they can ship it here, so that's why I need to go pick it up! First I need to come up with about $3,000! Any suggestions?

If you are interested I have friends I can ask.

As to the later, you could lay 100x odds on a 4 or 10.

I recall the authors of the Eaudamen Pie, describing an effort by Stanford physicists to clock a spinning roulette wheel, encountered a visit from an FBI agent when they shipped a roulette wheel in interstate commerce. The several different types of wood used in the wheel convinced the FBI agent to classify as an art object.

I wouldn't worry about being caught with a video poker machine in California. As long as it is just for home decoration or amusement nobody will care. When I stayed in a condo in Mission Beach earlier this year they had a working 8-5 Bonus Poker machine in the living room.

My advice is keep an eye on Craigslist and the LVRJ classifieds.