Retailers and an industry advocacy group argue Missouri officials are using criminal investigations and licensing pressure to settle a legal question they say belongs in the courts.
Two lawsuits challenge Missouri’s enforcement campaign against so-called “pre-reveal” or “no-chance” gaming machines. They argue that Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is exceeding her authority.
The complaints further allege that enforcement actions are pressuring businesses to remove the machines before Missouri courts have definitively ruled on whether they violate state law.
Filed in Cole County on June 18 and June 26, the lawsuits follow Hanaway’s intensified enforcement campaign after a February federal court ruling that found Torch Electronics’ devices constituted illegal gambling devices.
The Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group (MOLAG) filed the latest complaint. According to court filings, the group represents liquor suppliers, convenience stores, bars, and other licensed businesses. It alleges that Hanaway and the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) are improperly threatening liquor and other licenses of businesses that host the machines.
The earlier lawsuit was brought by St. Charles restaurant Tuners Bar & Grill, which is seeking class-action status on behalf of other businesses that operate the machines.
While both lawsuits seek to halt the crackdown, they target different aspects of the state’s enforcement campaign. Tuners challenges the Attorney General’s criminal enforcement theory. Meanwhile, MOLAG focuses on the alleged use of liquor-license authority to pressure businesses into removing the machines.
Businesses Argue AG is Rewriting Gambling Law Through Enforcement
The Turners’ lawsuit argues that it’s not the Attorney General, but state lawmakers, who have the authority to define what constitutes illegal gambling. It challenges whether Hanaway is effectively rewriting the state’s criminal code through enforcement.
According to the complaint, pre-reveal devices differ from traditional slot machines because players are shown the next outcome before deciding whether to proceed. That means, according to the plaintiffs, users are not risking money on an unknown future event. The lawsuit argues that those machines therefore fall outside Missouri’s statutory definition of gambling.
The lawsuit also argues that Missouri has never enacted legislation to prohibit the devices. It alleges that the Attorney General cannot “fill those legislative silences with her own criminal-law judgments.” The complaint asks the court to declare the state’s interpretation unconstitutional. It says current statutes are unconstitutionally vague as applied to the devices.
The complaint further argues that businesses face immediate and irreparable harm if forced to defend themselves only after criminal charges are filed.
For a Missouri retailer, prosecution is not a clean path to legal clarity. It means public accusation, possible arrest, search warrants, seizure of machines and cash, forfeiture proceedings, loss of banking relationships, landlord pressure, insurance problems, damage to licenses, termination of retail contracts, and reputational injury that no later judgment can fully repair,” the lawsuit states.
Second Lawsuit Targets Liquor-License Pressure
The MOLAG lawsuit focuses less on whether the machines themselves are legal and more on how Missouri is enforcing its crackdown.
The complaint alleges that the Attorney General, ATC, and other state officials are pressuring businesses to remove the disputed machines through the liquor license authority before courts have determined whether they violate Missouri law.
MOLAG notes that Missouri lawmakers have repeatedly debated legislation regulating gray-area gaming machines, video lottery terminals, and similar devices. But since no legislation has been passed, the landscape remains unsettled.
MOLAG also argues that the Attorney General cannot enforce what the Missouri General Assembly “has not clearly defined.” The complaint further argues that ATC’s authority extends to regulating liquor licenses. It does not extend to whether electronic gaming devices violate Missouri’s gambling laws.
Crackdown Follows Torch Shutdown
The lawsuits represent the first coordinated legal pushback against Hanaway’s enforcement campaign against gray-market gambling machines.
After the federal court ruled against Torch in February, Hanaway’s office warned the company that it faced criminal prosecution if it continued operating. The warnings prompted Torch to suspend its Missouri operations in April.
At the time, Hanaway described the decision as confirmation that Missouri law was already clear. She said that her office will continue to hold businesses accountable if they are “profiting from unlawful activity and creating chaos for lawlessness” in local communities.
Earlier this month, Hanaway told St. Louis Magazine that enforcement actions have significantly reduced the number of unregulated machines. She said that at their peak, they numbered around 25,000, and now only an estimated 7,000 are operational.
The Missouri enforcement campaign and subsequent lawsuits also reflect a broader national debate over gray-market gaming devices.
In July 2025, a Tennessee Chancery Court ruled that Torch’s “No Chance Games” violated that state’s gambling laws. The court rejected the company’s arguments that its “prize viewer” feature eliminated the element of chance and that Tennessee’s gambling statutes were unconstitutionally vague.
More recently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Pace-O-Matic’s Pennsylvania Skill machines qualify as slot machines under the state’s Gaming Act and criminal gambling laws.
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