Greyhound Electronics, Inc. (GEI; sometimes spelled as Grayhound Electronics), was an American manufacturer of traditional and electronic amusement games based in Toms River, New Jersey. The company flourished in the 1980s and 1990s as a manufacturer and seller of

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s, skill cranes and

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

players, as well as various other amusement devices. The company's grey-market selling of its amusement-only

video poker Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine. History Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like moni ...

machines—illegally modified to pay out vouchers to customers—in the northeast and in California became known after its co-owners were arrested in 1990 on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and promotion of gambling (later downgraded to just promotion of gambling).

History

Foundation and products

Greyhound Electronics was founded by Edmund Florimont ( 1934 – August 4, 2019), Robert A. Holland ( 1935 – July 11, 2011) and Carmen J. Ricci ( 1939 – July 21, 2012) in August 1982. Florimont's father, Eugene N. Florimont, had his own amusement game company, the Greyhound Amusement Device Company, which he founded in 1946 to market his electro-mechanical

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

simulation game—one of the first of its kind. Edmund Florimont previously worked with Ricci as co-owners of 200 arcades in New Jersey, as well as helping design electric shooting galleries for

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

and amusements for

Bally Bally may refer to: Places *Bally, a historical spelling of Bali *Bally (from the Irish ''baile'') or townland, a traditional division of land, as well as a common prefix in the names of settlements throughout Ireland *Bally, Bally-Jagachha, a c ...

. Holland previously worked for the Pennsylvania-based S&S Amusements. Holland met Florimont in the mid-1970s; in 1980 they started True-Data, a computer design company that performed contract work for

Zenith Data Systems Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) was a division of Zenith Electronics founded in 1979 after Zenith acquired the Heath Company, which had entered the personal computer market in 1977. Headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Zenith sold personal compu ...

. The three formed Greyhound over a shared dissatisfaction with the state of arcade games in the early 1980s. They built a prototype for an arcade game to be exhibited at the November 1982 International

Amusement Expo Amusement Expo is an annual convention featuring and showcasing vendors, developers and businesses having to do with coin activated amusements such as video arcade machines, electro-mechanical games, ticket/redemption skill and chance games, and ...

in Chicago. Holland laid out the circuit board for the game over seven 14-hour shifts, while the three devised an approach to user-replacement of the ROM chips onto which the game's software was burned. This feature, dubbed "satellite boards", was carried on to the company's commercial arcade games. The three headquartered Greyhound at a repurposed concrete factory in

Toms River, New Jersey Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Its mainland portion is also a census-designated place of the same name, which serves as the county seat of Ocean County.sales manager Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as net sales through the sale of products and ser ...

with Holland as head of engineering. The first products they sold were mechanical scrolling signs. They quickly got into electronically-programmable video display with the release of the Greyhound-Vision system in 1983. The company had 40 employees in total that year. Florimont left Greyhound sometime in the mid-1980s, after which Ricci was made president. Ricci promoted his son-in-law, Brian Petaccio, to vice president of the company. During Ricci's tenure, Greyhound began focusing on manufacturing coin-op electro-mechanical games, video

s, skill cranes and

players and on expanding their sales nationwide. The company became a prominent manufacturer of skill cranes for which they also supplied stuffed toys, while the coin-op games were provided pre-assembled or in kit form. Greyhound Electronics Video Trivia cabinets comparison

Greyhound Electronics Video Trivia cabinets comparison

Among the company's first video arcade games in 1984 was a

machine available in floor-cabinet, swivel-mounted table and countertop table chassis. Greyhound advertised the machine as an amusement game—no cash or prize redemption for winning—and emblazoned the machine with an " amusement only" sticker. Unique to this machine was its ability to take "satellite boards":

expansion board In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus s ...

s containing ROM chips burned with a specific poker game. As more games were developed, newer ROMs could be ordered from Greyhound to change the functionality of existing cabinets. Four games were offered at release, later expanded to eight. These games were developed back in 1982. Greyhound earned a sponsorship from

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% (US) ABV light beer brewed in Golden, Colorado; Albany, Georgia; Elkton, Virginia; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. The Canadia ...

in 1988 for a '' Super Shot''–esque mini-basketball game that they built for a

pizza parlor Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, oni ...

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania King of Prussia (also referred to as KOP) is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 22,028. The community took its unusual name in the 18th ...

. Another ''Super Shot'' clone, ''Greyhound Basketball'', was a popular attraction and won an AMOA Games Award at the 1990

. Greyhound went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

sometime after its founding, trading as a

penny stock Penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than one dollar per share. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the term "Penny stock" to refer to a security, a financial instrument which represents a ...

for most of its existence. A ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' columnist in 1989 suggested that this was due to its largest customer being in default. The company's stock soared between the fall and summer of 1989, after the company announced No Fire, a ceramic-based

flame-retardant The term flame retardants subsumes a diverse group of chemicals that are added to manufactured materials, such as plastics and textiles, and surface finishes and coatings. Flame retardants are activated by the presence of an ignition source and ...

coating for various surfaces that they would be licensing to companies nationwide and overseas. The shares reached a peak of $17.50 in October, up from $0.75 in July, but plummeted to $6.31 in November following a federal inquiry and subpoena of documents related to the company's trading. Petaccio resigned as vice president sometime between then and early 1990. No Fire was later determined to be a derivative product. Interest in No Fire was briefly renewed in fall 1990, but shares dropped again in October that year. Greyhound sold the rights to PNF Industries of

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Upper Saddle River is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 8,208,grey-market seller of its video poker machines, with Ricci enlisting members of the

Scarfo crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Italian-American Mafia, Mafia Crime family, family based in ...

of Philadelphia in the 1980s to help secure the company's products. Starting in 1985, Greyhound sold illegal video poker machines to numerous restaurants and bars in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and California. Unlike Greyhound's legal "amusement only" machines, Ricci had these machines modified to pay out cash

voucher A voucher is a bond of the redeemable transaction type which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be spent only for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include housing, travel, and food vouchers. The term voucher is also a ...

s. He collected fees from the bars' owners and contributed half of his profits to Nicky Scarfo Jr. on a bi-weekly basis. The Scarfo family in turn protected Greyhound from competitors within the northeast and helped Ricci find additional "stops" (locations) for his machines. The machines could be reverted via

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...

to a mode in which they operated as legal amusements only. George Fresolone, a Scarfo bodyguard-turned-

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

explained in 1991: "The cops come in. You hit a switch ... there's no pinch because there's no gambling". Ricci's proceeds to the Scarfo family ranged from $3,000 to $4,000 a week. Ricci had the Scarfo family protect roughly 25 locations in the northeast; Fresolone contended in 1991 that the total number of locations where Ricci had their illegal machines was more than four times this amount. In early 1989, the Scarfo family had a dispute over the amount Ricci was contributing and sent him, Scarfo Jr. and several other mob associates to a restaurant in South Philadelphia to settle it in a conversation. Their relationship recovered to the point where Ricci asked Fresolone to buy stock in Greyhound in fall 1989. Fresolone declined but passed the message on to several Scarfo family members including Scarfo Jr., as well as members of the

Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...

—all of whom bought into the company. After they announced No Fire, Greyhound's stock rose dramatically. In California, Greyhound's machines were sold illegally to bars and restaurants in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

and Garden Grove. Ricci sold directly to businesses within the

Little Saigon Little Saigon ( vi, Sài Gòn nhỏ or Tiểu Sài Gòn) is a name given to ethnic enclaves of expatriate Vietnamese mainly in English-speaking countries. Alternate names include Little Vietnam and Little Hanoi (mainly in historically communist ...

district of Westminster, according to the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, while a

crime ring Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

based in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

were reported to have illegally resold Greyhound's machines to the businesses within Garden Grove, according to a videotaped conversation between an undercover Garden Grove police officer and one of the ringleaders. Police conducted raids on 37

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

homes and businesses, as well as a woodcraft shop based in

San Clemente San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...

, in March 1990. They confiscated 79 illegal poker machines, the circuitry for some of them manufactured by Greyhound Electronics. Three members of the Las Vegas ring were arrested—two from

, California, and one from Toms River, New Jersey. California investigators accused the ring of ordering kits from Greyhound—suspected to be the ''Deluxe 8''

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

game kit—and bringing them from Las Vegas to California; meanwhile the San Clemente woodshop was suspected of building the cabinets for the machines. Police remarked that the raids halted the ring's expansion into San Jose. Shortly after the raids, police found an invoice from Greyhound for $64,750 worth of video poker machines. Dated January 1989, the invoice was marked as overdue. Detective Carl Olson told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'': "Greyhound's not about to ship $65,000 worth of machines to anybody unless they know them. For them to ship first and let them pay later, they either had to know the person or the money's guaranteed by someone else". Ricci was later found to be directly connected to the Las Vegas ring. Greyhound also operated in the grey market with video slot machines sold to Native American reservations in the 1980s. At the time, slot machines were legal only in the state of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

, New Jersey. Gambling in Indian reservations had been explicitly outlawed at the federal level by the

Johnson Act of 1951 Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

, excepting bingo halls. Manufacturers found guilty of supplying slot machines outside of Nevada and Atlantic City, including these Indian reservations, had their licenses to sell their machines to Nevada and Atlantic City revoked. Slot machines were nevertheless still plentiful and popular in reservations during the period that they were illegal. In 1987, Ricci sold versions of its voucher-enabled video poker machines to the

White Earth Nation The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, also called the White Earth Nation ( oj, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg, "People from where there is an abundance of white clay"), is a federally recognized Native American band located ...

, who owned a bingo hall on their reservation in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. The deal was mediated through Victor Collucci, a sales representative of GTECH, a company based in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

that was a major supplier of electronic

lottery machine A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

s and that was vying for a manufacturing contract for the

Minnesota State Lottery The Minnesota State Lottery, or Minnesota Lottery, is a government agency that operates lotteries in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The state’s lottery system was established in 1988 through a successful voter referendum that amended the state’ ...

Arrest of co-owners

Following Fresolone's submission of his testimony and recorded conversations to New Jersey's Organized Crime Task Force, 41 members and associates of the

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

and Scarfo crime families of Philadelphia and DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey were arrested on August 22, 1990, all on charges of racketeering. Carmen Ricci, Petaccio and Alan Cifelli of Greyhound were among the arrested, as was Scarfo Jr. In addition to racketeering, Ricci, Petaccio and Cifelli were charged with promoting gambling, possession of a gambling device and

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

. All three were released on bail pending sentencing in 1991. Ricci formally resigned as chairman of Greyhound in November 1990 while retaining his shares of the company. Ricci had no successor in place; his brother Thomas Ricci soon took over his position as chairman. Ricci, Petaccio and Cifelli were

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

in March 1991, the grand jury of New Jersey seeking forfeiture of the defendants' shares in Greyhound. All three pleaded guilty in November 1991, agreeing to permanently sever ties with Greyhound and sell all their stock in the company. The state of New Jersey dropped its attempt to liquidate Greyhound Electronics' assets simultaneously, allowing the company to remain in business under the condition that the company agreed to pay a $500,000 settlement to the state under supervision for the next five years. Ricci was ultimately sentenced to three years' probation and fined $500,000 by the state of New Jersey. The state dropped the racketeering charges against Petaccio and Cifelli and sentenced them both to 18 months' probation for promoting gambling. Greyhound continued to operate for several years, reporting $4.4 million in sales and gross profits of $1.2 million in the first half of 1991 despite the company's legal troubles. The

Casino Control Commission A gaming control board (GCB), also called by various names including gambling control board, casino control board, gambling board, and gaming commission, is a government agency charged with regulating casino and other types of gaming in a defined ...

of New Jersey banned Greyhound from selling amusement-only versions of its machines to casinos in Atlantic City, but they were later allowed to withdraw their application to continue their partnerships with those casinos. Illegal Greyhound video poker machines were still in circulation during this time, with fifteen being traced to taverns in Wisconsin by state investigators in 1992. New Jersey state records listed Greyhound as inactive in 2005. Carmen Ricci died in 2012, predeceased by his brother Thomas Ricci.

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

Greyhound Electronics
at the

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American companies established in 1982 Amusement companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey Defunct video game companies of the United States Gambling companies of the United States Philadelphia crime family Slot machine manufacturers