Defined and Punished. (a) A person commits a felony when he imports or attempts to import, or causes to import a gambling device, whether
operable or not, into the territorial jurisdiction of Guam, or manufactures a gambling device within the Territory of Guam. (b) As used in this Section, gambling device means any coin operated device which, when operated, may return winnings (other than free games not redeemable for cash) of value to the user based partially or completely upon chance, by the operation of which a person may become entitled to receive winnings of value. (1) It does not include pinball and other amusement machines or devices which are predominantly games of skill, whether affording the opportunity of additional chances or free plays or not. (2) It does include any slot machines, video poker machines and other machines or devices which afford the opportunity of winnings, payouts, malfunction refunds to the player, or giving the player or user anything of value under any guise or form based partially or completely upon chance. (c) Any gambling device in violation of this Section shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture. Any slot machine shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture. (1) Any property subject to forfeiture under this Section shall be seized by a peace officer, including Guam Customs Officer, upon process issued by the Superior Court, except that seizure without such process may be made when the seizure is incident to an arrest or a search under a search warrant or an inspection under an administrative inspection warrant; the property subject to seizure has been the subject of a prior judgment in a criminal injunction or forfeiture proceeding based upon this Section; or the peace officer has probable cause to believe that the property has been used or intended to be used in violation of this Section. In the event of a seizure pursuant to this Subsection, proceedings under Subsection (d) shall be instituted promptly. (d) Property taken or detained under this Section shall not be repleviable, but shall be deemed to be in the custody of the
government subject only to the orders and decrees of the Court. Whenever property is seized under the provisions of this Section, the government shall destroy all gambling devices seized and forfeited upon order of the Court. (e) Any person found guilty of the importation, attempted importation or causing the importation of gambling devices to Guam, or who is found guilty of manufacturing a gambling device in Guam, shall be guilty of a felony and be subject to imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, a fine not to exceed Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) per gambling device, or both such fine and imprisonment. SOURCE: G.P.C. § 330a; *Cal. § 1560 (1971). Subsection (b) amended by P.L. 18-007:11 (July 8, 1985). Repealed and reenacted by P.L. 19- 004:3 (May 21, 1987). Subsections (f) and (g) repealed by P.L. 19-024:9 (Oct. 17, 1988). Entire section repealed by P.L. 23-128:IV:13 (Dec. 12, 1996). Added by P.L. 24-001:3 (Mar. 15, 1997). 2014 NOTE: The Gambling Device Fund was implicitly created by P.L. 19-004:3 (May 21, 1987), which added subsection (g), and authorized the Director of Revenue and Taxation to charge registration fees for gambling devices and deposit the fees into a separate fund. Subsection (g) was repealed by P.L. 19-024:9 (Oct. 17, 1988), divesting the Director of authority over this separate fund. The Gambling Device Fund itself was repealed P.L. 23-128:IV:13 (Dec. 12, 1996); the reference to “§ 6420 of Title 9” in this public law was a manifest typographical error and corrected by the Compiler. P.L. 23- 128:13, provided: Section 13. Repeal and reversion of Gambling Device Fund. § 6420 of Title 9, Guam Code Annotated, is hereby repealed and any and all remaining balances are reverted to the General Fund. All revenue previously earmarked into this Fund shall continue to be collected and credited to the General Fund. P.L. 24-001:1 (Mar. 15, 1997) provided for the “Reversion of Gambling Device Fund” and stated: “any and all remaining balances of the Gambing Device Fund, repealed by P.L. 19-24, shall be reverted to the General Fund.” P.L. 24-001 also repealed Section 13 of P.L. 23-128, and added § 64.20 (a) through (e), using identical language as had been added by P.L. 19-004:3. CROSS-REFERENCES: Hawaii Penal Code, §§ 712-1220(5) "Gambling Device." COMMENT: Section 64.20, as enacted, differs from the Commission's proposal in that Subsection (a) refers to certain authorized exceptions
already contained in the Government Code of Guam allowing possession of slot machines in certain instances. Further, the definition of Agambling device@ appeared to have been limited from the Commission's proposal. The Commission proposed that a Agambling device@ means Aa device that, as a result of the insertion of money ...@. It is unclear whether this definition includes devices which have, as their operating mechanism, electronics only and do not use mechanical wheels or mechanical force, even though these machines operate in an identical fashion to the traditional mechanical slot machines. This Section is a great improvement over the Penal Code in that, for the first time, the mere possession of gambling devices is prohibited without any additional requirement that they actually be used for gambling. It is this grave deficiency of the Penal Code that has prohibited local authorities from seizing slot machines heretofore due to lack of proof of their actual use of gambling devices, despite the obvious fact that they may be so used. Further, Subsection (c) provides for the forfeiture of such machines. COURT DECISIONS: SUPERIOR COURT, 1978. Import of statute is to hold liable one who has control, dominion and pecuniary interest in a Agambling device,@ rather than such person's employee if such employee has no such control, dominion or pecuniary interest. People v. Concepcion, Sup. Ct. Cr. #37-78 (Order, 06/27/78; Abbate, P.J.) C.A.9 1981 Public Law 13-135, providing for a Agambling zone@ at the airport, provides only a limited exemption to 15 U.S.C. § 1172 and the exemptions were not applicable to the machines in this case. U.S. v. Various Slot Machines on Guam, 658 F.2d 697.