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By stan_sipple

Missouri Supreme Court vacates defendant's guilty plea to violating 313.830.4(9), a Class D felony, defrauding a casino game, when the defendant admitted only to buying chips for $180 and exchanging them for nearly $500 of chips with the cashier's assistance who was his girlfriend. Eric Winfrey, Appellant v. State of Missouri, Respondent.: SC88825The circuit court clearly erred in overruling Winfrey's motion to set aside his guilty plea to violating section 313.830.4(9) because he did not take anything of value "in or from the gambling games" with intent to defraud. The statute penalizes taking money or something of value "in" or "from" the "gambling games," which section 313.800.1(12), RSMo 2000, defines as "games of skill or chance" in a casino, not the casino itself. As such, the plain language of the statute does not cover conduct that has no connection to any actual gambling game. Section 313.830.4(9) further speaks of taking an amount of money of something of "greater value than the amount won," implying a connection to actual gambling games. Purchasing casino chips and then fraudulently exchanging those chips for a cash payment in excess of the chips' face value does not constitute a violation of that section. Justice Price dissents, because cashing in the chips for greater than their true value was possible only in the casino, and defendant's admissions established the facts to prove his guilt.

Full post as published by Showmeblawgs on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).