Section 177A Amusement devices; license; definition; fee; view and inspection; gambling; nonapplicability of lottery statute
Section 177A. (1) The licensing authorities of any city or town may grant, and after written notice to the licensee, suspend or revoke a license to keep and operate an automatic amusement device for hire, gain or reward, approved by the director of standards and necessaries of life under section two hundred and eighty-three of chapter ninety-four.
(2) The term “automatic amusement device” as used in this section shall be construed as meaning any mechanism whereby, upon the deposit therein of a coin or token, any apparatus is released or set in motion or put in a position where it may be set in motion for the purpose of playing any game involving, in whole or in part, the skill of the player, including, but not exclusively, such devices as are commonly known as pinball machines including free play pinball machines.
(3) Licenses granted under this section, unless sooner revoked, shall expire on December thirty-first of each year. Every such license shall specify the street and number of the premises where the automatic amusement device is to be kept or offered for operation or give some particular description of such premises, shall state the type of the automatic amusement device to which it relates, and shall cover any automatic amusement device of the same type which as a substitute or replacement for the automatic amusement device licensed, may, during the term of the license, be kept or offered for operation on the premises specified; but such license shall under no circumstances cover an automatic amusement device of a type other than the type stated in such license; and such license shall not cover the automatic amusement device if in any place other than the premises from time to time specified in such license. No such license shall specify more than one premises at one time. Upon written application, the licensing authority may from time to time amend any license granted under this section by changing the premises specified.
(4) The annual fee for a license under this section for any automatic amusement device licensed hereunder, or any renewal thereof, shall be twenty dollars, unless otherwise established in a town by town meeting action and in a city by city council action, and in a town with no town meeting by town council action, by adoption of appropriate by-laws and ordinances to set such fees, but in no event shall any such fee be greater than one hundred dollars. The fee for every change of premises shall be two dollars.
(5) Automatic amusement devices licensed under this section shall be so installed on the premises described in the license as to be in open view at all times while in operation, and shall at all times be available for inspection.
(6) No person keeping or offering for operation or allowing to be kept or offered for operation any automatic amusement device licensed under this section shall permit the same to be used for the purpose of gambling.
(7) The provisions of section seven of chapter two hundred and seventy-one of the General Laws shall not apply to machines licensed under the provisions of this section.
(8) Any violation of any provision of this section or of chapter one hundred and thirty-six of the General Laws by any person managing or controlling any premises where an automatic amusement device licensed under this section is kept or offered for operation shall be cause for the revocation of all licenses for automatic amusement devices kept or offered for operation on such premises.
(9) Sections 2 to 4, inclusive, of chapter 136 shall not apply to automatic amusement devices licensed under this section.