[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners (now the
Council) of the City of Perth Amboy 7-18-45 as Ord.
No. C-335. Sections 140-3 and 140-13 amended at
time of adoption of Code; see Ch. 1, General Provisions. Other amendments
noted where applicable.]
Hereafter, no person shall place, maintain, conduct or use in
any public place or quasi-public place or in any building, store or
other public place wherein the public is invited or wherein the public
may enter, within the municipal limits of the City of Perth Amboy,
any automatic amusement game of the type commonly known and designated
as bagatelle, baseball or pin amusement game or similar machines or
devices, and particularly, but not by way of limitation, all coin-operated
automatic amusement devices of the type commonly known as bagatelle,
baseball or pin amusement games or similar machines or devices, without
having first obtained a license for that purpose from the City Council
of the City of Perth Amboy; provided, however, that no license shall
be issued to any person who shall have been convicted of crime or
a violation of any city ordinance involving gambling; and provided
further that if a license has been issued and the person to whom it
has been issued shall thereafter be convicted of crime or a violation
of any city ordinance involving gambling, said license shall immediately
be revoked by the Director of the Police Department of the City of
Perth Amboy.
The word "person" as used in this chapter shall mean any individual,
firm, member of firm, partnership, member of partnership, corporation
or any officer, director or stockholder of said corporation.
[Amended 12-21-76 by Ord. No. 121-76; 12-21-82 by Ord. No. 310-82]
A.
Except as provided below in Subsections C and D of this section, each distributor of video machines shall pay the following:
[Amended 9-28-2011 by Ord. No. 1603-2011]
(1)
One (1) fee per calendar year which covers all video machines of
the respective distributors in the city: five hundred dollars ($500).
(2)
A background check is required for each owner-proprietor and/or owner.
The owner-proprietor and/or owner shall be responsible for the cost.
The background check is good for three (3) years.
C.
Each owner-proprietor shall receive a license for one (1) or more
video machines, at one (1) site, and a proprietor's license for
each video machine, upon payment of the following and compliance with
all other sections of this chapter.
[Amended 9-28-2011 by Ord. No. 1603-2011]
D.
Any applicant for a distributor's license or for a proprietor's
license whose application is made on or after August 1 of any calendar
year shall be required to pay for said portion of the calendar year
only one-half (1/2) of the required fee for the respective license.
Said fee and license shall be valid until December 31 of said calendar
year.
E.
The number of video machines licensed in any single facility shall
not exceed five (5).
A separate application for each automatic amusement device or
machine that may be licensed under the provisions of this chapter
shall be filed on a form to be furnished by the City Clerk, which
form shall show the name of the applicant; post office address of
the applicant; age of the applicant, if an individual; whether or
not the person making the application has been convicted of crime
or a violation of any city ordinance involving gambling; place that
said device or machine is to be displayed or operated; the nature
of the business conducted at said place, and such additional information
as the City Clerk may require. Said application shall be verified
by an affidavit of the applicant, and if a corporation, by an officer
of said corporation authorized to make such application. The fee for
the license shall be payable with the filing of the application, and
if the application is rejected, the fee shall be returned to the applicant.
A license may be revoked or refused when required by public
interest.
A license tag, bearing a serial number, shall be issued by the
City of Perth Amboy for each machine or device licensed under the
provisions of this chapter and shall be affixed to each machine or
device for which said license tag has been issued so that the same
shall be quickly and easily identified.
An application, in writing, shall be filed with the Director
of the Police Department of the City of Perth Amboy for the transfer
or removal from place to place of any device or machine as specified
in this chapter, licensed under the provisions hereof, and the transfer
of any license from one place to another shall state the full name
of the applicant, description of his place of business and the proposed
location of the said device or machine as specified in this chapter.
The Director of the Police Department may in his discretion, deny
the transfer of the license from one premise to another if the public
health, safety and welfare of the community may be jeopardized thereby.
Licenses issued hereunder shall not in any event be transferable from
one person to another, and if a license shall be terminated in accordance
with the provisions of this chapter or upon the voluntary surrender
thereof by the licensee, there shall be no refund of any license fee
theretofore paid.
Not more than five (5) machines or devices of any type or types
as specified in this chapter shall be permitted to be used or operated
in any one (1) place, location or premises. No such device or machine
as specified in this chapter shall be placed, operated, maintained
or used in any back room of the premises where said device or machine
is licensed. Any person who shall offer or pay any reward, gift, prize
or merchandise to any person or persons using or maintaining any such
machine or device as specified in this chapter, or who shall use or
permit to be used any of the machines or devices so licensed for the
purpose of gambling, shall be deemed to be guilty of a violation of
this chapter and shall be punishable therefor as hereinafter provided.
If the Director of the Police Department or the Chief of Police
of the City of Perth Amboy, or the members of the Police Department
of the said City of Perth Amboy, shall have reason to believe any
device or machine as specified in this chapter is used as a gambling
device, the device or machine may be immediately seized by the police
and impounded, and if upon trial of the licensee for allowing same
to be used as a gambling device said licensee shall be found guilty,
such machine shall be confiscated and destroyed by the police. Such
action as aforesaid by the police of the City of Perth Amboy shall
not exonerate the licensee from such further punishment, if he should
be found guilty as aforesaid, as hereinafter provided.
Any person who shall permit a minor under the age of sixteen
(16) years to play or operate any of the devices or machines licensed
by this chapter shall be deemed to be guilty of a violation of this
chapter and punishable as hereinafter provided.
This chapter is enacted for the purpose of revenue as well as
the proper regulation and control of the aforesaid automatic amusement
games of the type commonly known and designated as bagatelle, baseball
or pin amusement games or similar machines or devices, and to assure
the proper use thereof.
This chapter shall not apply to any coin-operated devices other
than as described in § 140.1.
Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall
be subject to a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) or
to imprisonment for a term not to exceed ninety (90) days, or both,
for each and every violation. Each day that this chapter is violated
shall be considered a separate and distinct offense.
