The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the legislative order to shut down an Iowa Lottery game, but investors are continuing their effort to recoup the cost of TouchPlay machines they bought at the lottery’s invitation.
Craig Cahoon with Moss Distributing is one of the plaintiffs in another lawsuit filed on behalf of thirty companies asking for damages. He says they lost money when the state shut down the TouchPlay game. They had completely different pleadings, arguments, and a completely different case than Cahoon’s group brought to the court, he says, "so their results have nothing to do with the case whatsoever at all."
State Senator Mike Connolly of Dubuque says while there’s no connection between the two suits, he’s confident the state will prevail in the second one, too. "You can never predict what the courts will rule," Connolly says, but he says he’s confident the Attorney General will do a good job.
State Senator Mary Lundby was pleased at Tuesday’s ruling upholding the TouchPlay ban. "I think that when the legislature made this decision, no matter how difficult it was, that it was a decision that Iowans wanted, Lundby says, "and we didn’t make it lightly."
Hawkeye Commodity Promotions saw its challenge dismissed by a judge on the Iowa appeals court last August, and that decision was upheld on Tuesday by the Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Cahoon’s lawsuit is expected to get a hearing in court in April 2008.