'People are paying to charge their phone.'Īttorneys for Quick Charge say they are merely using what looks like a slot machine game as a way to promote their new cell phone charging stations, in hopes of gaining traction in the marketplace. 'Your position is, this is a charging machine,' DiMotto said to the company's lawyers. More than two decades later, Jeremy Hahn is putting video slot machines into local gas stations with one significant alteration - his machines are equipped with cables that can charge your cell phone.
However, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals wrote at the time that video poker machines are not necessarily 'gambling machines' if they're used for a legal purpose.
The elder Hahn appealed his case and lost. Quick Charge Kiosk is owned and operated by Jeremy Hahn of West Bend whose father, Lester Hahn, was sentenced to prison in the early 1990's for operating video poker machines in taverns. 'It's a vending machine running a promotional game,' said Daryl Laatsch, attorney for Quick Charge Kiosk, which operates the machines. The company behind the machines insists they are not gambling devices. In other words, the so-called 'Pow'r Up' machines at some local gas stations 'are kind of like slot machines,' according to Milwaukee County Circuit Judge John DiMotto.