Lawsuit seeks to recover all Kentuckians’ gambling losses from ‘gray’ machines

Friday, October 4, 2024 2:58 PM
  • Joe Sonka, Kentucky Public Radio

A nonprofit is suing companies involved with the cash payout games proliferating across Kentucky stores in recent years, citing a 226-year-old law that allows third parties to recover residents’ losses from illegal gambling.
A 1798 law that allows the recovery of money that Kentuckians lost from illegal gambling was recently used in the state’s successful lawsuit against an online poker company, landing a $300 million judgment.

A new lawsuit filed Thursday attempts to do the same thing, only this time it targets companies tied to what are known as “gray machines” — cash payout games resembling casino slots that have proliferated in gas stations and stores around Kentucky in recent years.