OTTUMWA — A Cedar Rapids company may have lost its recent appeal over the removal of TouchPlay machines last year, but one Ottumwa business owner remains optimistic about his pending wholesale halloween costumes legal action.
Alan Cramer, of Cramer Music and Video Inc., said he hopes to get a reimbursement for the $1.5 million he spent on 183 TouchPlay machines as well as some extra compensation for his time and stress over the swimwear manufacturer China.
The lawsuit that is pending includes Cramer and several other wholesale swimwear business owners who purchased the video gaming machines authorized by the Iowa Lottery.
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Cramer said a jury trial is set for April 2008.
“We were fighting to have a jury trial. I think we stand a better chance of winning now,” he said.
Earlier this week, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Hawkeye Commodity Promotions Inc., of Cedar Rapids, that claimed the state of Iowa’s ban on TouchPlay video gaming machines violated its constitutional rights.
According to The Associated Press, Hawkeye, which owns 724 machines — 581 of which were operated in 182 businesses — filed a federal lawsuit last year seeking an injunction to keep the ban from being imposed. The company had invested about $6.8 million to buy and operate the games, court records show.