Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke/courtesy photo

Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke issued a call Monday for a statewide ban on commercial gambling machines, saying they exacerbate crime, poverty and family suffering.

“As DA, there's a lot I can do once we have sued or indicted individual store and machine owners who have violated the law. And I intend to use all the tools I have available to hold those who violate the law accountable,” Cooke said during a news conference. “But this problem will not go away until the legislature acts to ban these machines that are wreaking havoc in our communities.”

Cooke said Georgians play billions of dollars on the machines each year. Game play in Middle Georgia is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. When operated legally, video gambling machine players can redeem their winnings for store credit or lottery tickets. Although cash payouts are prohibited, law enforcement investigations have shown that most stores operating the machines pay customers in cash, Cooke said. As a result, gambling addiction and abuse is a widespread problem, he said.

“It's not uncommon to see children standing in local convenience stores while their parents gamble away money meant for groceries and rent,” Cooke said. “By design, many of the stores who have these machines are located in our most impoverished neighborhoods that already are challenged by blight and crime.”

Cooke said psychologists have said video gambling machines are far more addictive than other forms of gambling because they provide immediate reinforcement through player wins in the short term as an inducement to keep them playing.

Last month, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed gambling convictions of a 74-year-old restaurant owner whose family was forced into bankruptcy after Cooke prosecuted him over the operation of nine coin-operated game machines.

Ronnie Bartlett, owner of the now-defunct Captain Jack's Crab Shack in Peach County, was one of a string of defendants Cooke charged with gambling offenses. Bartlett's attorney, Chris Anulewicz, said his client was the first who chose to fight rather then enter a plea.

Anulewicz and former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers, who also represents Bartlett, contend that the appellate court's June 25 reversal is the first step in calling a halt to what they say is a pattern of similar, lucrative—and potentially abusive—prosecutions across the state for nearly two decades by local prosecutors.

Cooke is a career prosecutor who was first elected district attorney in 2012. He spoke out recently on a different issue: the abortion ban passed by the Georgia General Assembly and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp this year. The ban has raised questions about potential criminal liability for women who seek abortions because it fails to provide them with a potential defense in prosecution in cases of rape or if the woman's life is in danger. “My office will continue its long-standing practice of supporting and protecting women who are in crisis, rather than prosecuting them,” Cooke said about the abortion ban. “I will exercise my discretion not to prosecute women and doctors for exercising their constitutional rights.”