On January 23 and 24, 1991, the State Commission of Investigation held public hearings into problems relating to the illegal use of video gambling machines. It was a hearing that had been suggested by officials in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Attorney General’s Department of Law and Public Safety.

The problems with these machines were best summarized in a few lines of testimony from Assistant Attorney General Robert J. Carroll, the first witness at the hearing.

Today ...we find the descendents of the onearmed bandit proliferating not only in this state but in the entire nation. These electronic machines, like their mechanical predecessors, are capable of generating millions of dollars of illegal profits for organized criminal groups and enterprises.

[Organized crime families] have rediscovered the lucrative slot machine market....Unlike the earlier mechanical devices, however, the new ... electronic slot machines are equipped with sophisticated computer software. This software allows the operators, manufacturers and distributors of the machines to inhibit law enforcement detection by masking their true nature as illegal gambling devices.