Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is offering guidance to Kentucky law enforcement and prosecutors across the state on the laws regarding illegal gaming passed by the General Assembly.
“The law is clear – gray machines and other games like them are illegal gambling devices that have no place in Kentucky,” Coleman said in a news release. “Along with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners across Kentucky, we will uphold the law as passed by our Commonwealth’s policymakers in the General Assembly.”
In 2023, the Kentucky legislature passed HB 594, sponsored by Rep. Killian Timoney (R- Nicholasville) and House Speaker David Osborne (R- Prospect), to outlaw gray machines.
Following a legal challenge, the Franklin Circuit Court ruled in favor of the Attorney General and upheld the General Assembly’s ban in June 2024. The Attorney General’s Office continues to vigorously defend the law on appeal.
“You and your office are free to investigate and prosecute any violations of the Commonwealth’s gambling laws, including the laws related to ‘gray machines,’” an advisory to law enforcement and prosecutors from the Office of Attorney General reads.“[W]e are prepared to provide whatever assistance your office may need if your investigation or prosecution of illegal ‘gray machines’ is challenged in court or results in additional constitutional challenges to the law or litigation against your office.”
