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Video Gambling Trial Under Way

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – As reported by the Associated Press: "The man who once ran the state's largest video gambling operation came close to a contempt charge during his trial Thursday, a federal judge said.

"`We are very close to a contempt situation,' U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson said after the jury was removed from the courtroom, the second of many trips to a secluded room for the jury of two men and six women.

"Three plaintiffs who describe themselves as addicted gamblers have sued Fred Collins, who operated more video gambling machines in South Carolina than anyone else before the $3 billion-a-year industry was banned three years ago.

"The plaintiffs say Collins' gambling machines enticed them with offers of jackpots far above the then-legal payout limit of $125 a day and they want him to repay their losses.

"…Collins justified payouts on his machines, saying there were stickers on the machines that warned of the payout limit and testified that an attorney general's opinion allowed payments of $125 more than what gamblers put into them.

"But after telling the jury to leave, Anderson said that was not what he thought then-Attorney General Charlie Condon's opinion was.

"`It's another episode of a volunteered answer' that's not factual, said Anderson, adding he thought Condon offered three potential interpretations of the law but left it up to the state Revenue Department to decide which to use…"

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