Nebraska § 77-3001 - Terms, defined.

§ 77-3001. Terms, defined.

For purposes of the Mechanical Amusement Device Tax Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Cash device means any mechanical amusement device capable of awarding (a) cash, (b) anything redeemable for cash, (c) gift cards, credit, or other instruments which have a value denominated by reference to an amount of currency, or (d) anything redeemable for anything described in subdivision (c) of this subdivision;

(2) Department means the Department of Revenue;

(3) Distributor means any person, other than a retail establishment, who places and who either directly or indirectly controls or manages a mechanical amusement device within a retail establishment within the State of Nebraska;

(4) Manufacturer means an individual, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company that manufactures, builds, rebuilds, fabricates, assembles, produces, programs, designs, or otherwise makes modifications to cash devices or associated equipment for use or play of cash devices;

(5)(a) Mechanical amusement device means any machine which, upon insertion of a coin, currency, credit card, or substitute into the machine, operates or may be operated or used for a game, contest, or amusement of any description, such as, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, pinball games, shuffleboard, bowling games, radio-ray rifle games, baseball, football, racing, boxing games, electronic video games of skill, and coin-operated pool tables. Mechanical amusement device also includes game and draw lotteries and coin-operated automatic musical devices.

(b) Mechanical amusement device does not mean vending machines which dispense tangible personal property, devices located in private homes for private use, pickle card dispensing devices which are required to be registered with the department pursuant to section 9-345.03, gaming devices or limited gaming devices as defined in and operated pursuant to the Nebraska Racetrack Gaming Act, or devices which are mechanically constructed in a manner that would render their operation illegal under the laws of the State of Nebraska;

(6) Net operating revenue means the dollar amount collected by a distributor or operator of any cash device computed pursuant to applicable statutes, rules, and regulations less the total of cash awards paid out to players by the cash device as described in subdivision (1) of this section;

(7) Operator means any person who operates a place of business in which a mechanical amusement device is physically located and available for play;

(8) Person means an individual, partnership, limited liability company, society, association, joint-stock company, corporation, estate, receiver, lessee, trustee, assignee, referee, or other person acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity, whether appointed by a court or otherwise, and any combination of individuals; and

(9) Whenever in the Mechanical Amusement Device Tax Act the words electronic video games of skill, games of skill, or skill-based devices are used, they refer to mechanical amusement devices which produce an outcome predominantly caused by skill and not chance.

Hourly fee pool tables that are not coin operated are excluded from the definition of "mechanical amusement device" in subsection (2) of this section. Because in regard to the legitimate purposes of the Mechanical Amusement Device Tax Act, a substantial difference of situation or circumstance exists between coin-operated amusement devices and other forms of amusement for which an hourly fee is collected, the act is not "special legislation" in violation of Neb. Const. Article III, section 18. Big John's Billiards, Inc. v. Balka, 260 Neb. 702, 619 N.W.2d 444 (2000).