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The lawsuit says state legislators have heard concerns that a video game console was involved in the murder of an employee in a robbery at Craig’s Food Mart in Hazleton two years ago.
However, the bill regulating the game has not yet passed.
“Unlicensed video slots are pervasive in nearly every corner of public institutions,” State Senate President Jake Corman wrote in a Jan. 8, 2020 memo to his colleagues. “The growth of these machines can be seen in convenience stores, pizzerias, laundromats, etc.”
Corman noted that some machines fit his definition of a slot machine, but are not regulated by gambling laws outside of licensed establishments. Other machines are not gambling machines and are not subject to the country’s criminal law because they have been ruled by a court.
Corman’s July 30, 2020 bill was sent to a Senate committee but was not voted on.
Without regulation and oversight, Corman said, it would be impossible to guarantee that machines would work fairly, that minors would stop gambling, or that the state would collect taxes from minors.
Five months later, on December 12, 2020, Askokkumar Patel died after being mugged while working at his Craig’s Food Mart. An immigrant from India, Patel moved to Hazleton in search of a safer place after being shot dead in a store in Maryland.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of his family said Slott could pay out thousands of dollars in cash, making him a “dangerous magnet for crime and violent behavior.”
The man accused of Patel’s murder, Japhet Rodriguez, played the game at Craig’s earlier in the day, the lawsuit says, and news reports of other robberies and murders that took place at the game’s location. is detailed. Across the state, according to the lawsuit, he has 30,000 of his slot machines running in an environment lacking casino security. These safeguards include bulletproof cages for cashier or cashless prize transfers, a minimally staffed security department, and a ban on guns.