Bob and Rose Black have played slot machines at the Atlantic City Hilton and video lottery terminals at Delaware Park. Outside of the location, the Mount Ephraim couple say they're one and the same.

"The games in Delaware look like the ones in Atlantic City and act like the ones in Atlantic City. I don't see a difference," said Bob, who runs a landscaping business.

The similarities are not lost on the folks who run the Delaware Lottery, which oversees the VLT's at the state's racetracks.

"They do not differ from those they have in Atlantic City," said Wayne Lemons, director of the lottery.

The definition of a VLT will play a major role in whether a proposed bill to allow such games at the Meadowlands and up to two other racetracks in North Jersey will pass constitutional muster. Such machines, operating under the state lottery, would provide the state with much needed revenue for aid to education, said State Sen. Joseph Suliga, D-Middlesex. It would also salvage the struggling racetracks by setting aside 10 percent of the VLT net revenue to enrich purses, thus attracting better horses and more bettors.

In early February, Gov. James E. McGreevey appointed an eight-member commission to examine the legal question, as well as the impact of VLTs on casinos in Atlantic City.

The bill and McGreevey's commission have drawn criticism from the gaming industry. Casino officials say VLTs are slot machines cloaked in another name and cannot be introduced without a voter referendum and an amendment to the state constitution's ban on such gambling outside Atlantic City.

"Our position on the law is clear. The governor is attempting to get around that by saying they are not slot machines, but part of the lottery," said Dennis Gomes, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, which represents the gaming industry in Atlantic City.

Just how does a video lottery terminal differ from a slot machine?

Slot machines involve spinning electromagnetic reels, and are known in the trade as line-up games. When the reels stop, the way they line up determines whether a player wins.

Video terminals can also include line-up games, but the difference is the "reels" are animated on a video screen. Video versions can also feature a variety of games which require no line-ups such as poker, keno and blackjack, or a combination on a single machine.

Both styles depend on a computerized random number generator in each machine to determine the outcome of each play, said Chuck Brooke, vice president of government relations for International Game Technology, the Reno-based manufacturer which creates both VLT and slot systems.

Atlantic City has both types of games. So does Las Vegas and the racetracks in Delaware.

The lottery element entered the picture when South Dakota approved the use of only video machines in 1989, and placed their operation under the state lottery, Brooke said.

When Delaware legalized video lottery terminals in the 1990s, the state permitted both kinds of machines. The difference between Delaware and Atlantic City is that in Delaware the machines are linked to a central computer under the aegis of the lottery office, which has physical control over the money and the hours of operation. The computer activates the games in the morning and shuts them down at night. All financial data is collected by the computer.

"We depend on the computer for the accounting, while Atlantic City does physical counts at each property," Lemons said.

New York has taken the concept to the next level in its preparation for VLTs at eight of the state's 10 tracks.

"They have a new generation of technology where machines do not have a random number generator," Brooke said. Instead, there will be a predetermined number of winners, much like the paper lottery.

"Gamblers play against other players as part of a lottery. In slot machines its's you against the machine," said Stacy Clifford, a spokeswoman for the New York Racing and Wagering Board.

"It looks like a video terminal, but the outcome is not determined at the terminal. The pool of winners are picked at the central computer," she said. "The only way McGreevey can win the argument in New Jersey is to go with that system."

Still, the situation in New York is also muddled legally, even with the legislature approving VLTs in 2001.

Legal squabbles aside, Clifford and Brooke agree with Lemons that to the average gambler, it's a slot machine in New York, in Delaware and in Atlantic City.

Suliga says the VLTs he's proposing escape any constitutional ban because they operate like the lottery, not like a slot machine.

"It would be totally a game of chance. The machine does exactly what the lottery does, but you do it on a machine and not a rub-off ticket," Suliga said.

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Reach William H. Sokolic at (609) 823-9159 or wsokolic@courierpostonline.com

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