Nintendo's Lottery Gizmo Muddles M's Deal -- Game Maker Denies Any Link To Gambling

Reports that Nintendo manufactures equipment that can be used for legalized gambling have raised questions about baseball's acceptance of a Seattle group's offer to buy the Seattle Mariners.

Nintendo, which has pledged $75 million toward the team's purchase and operation, has manufactured computer equipment that allows users to play legalized lottery games at home.

In the U.S., the equipment is still at the prototype stage. It was proposed for use in Minnesota, where it was withdrawn amid objections that the system could not be made childproof.

A spokesman for Control Data Corp., a computer firm that operates the Minnesota lottery, said his company asked Nintendo to help develop an on-line lottery system. No state lottery has approved its use, and Control Data has no plans to market the system further, said Ott Brown, a Control Data vice president.

Nintendo's home video-game systems are in more than 30 percent of households in the U.S. and more than 40 percent in Japan, said a statement released today by Howard Lincoln, senior vice president of Nintendo of America.

"Neither Nintendo Co. Ltd., Nintendo of America Inc., Mr. H. Yamauchi, Mr. M. Arakawa or any other Nintendo executive is involved in the gambling business," he said. "We don't have any interest in race horses, casinos, sports-betting parlors, card rooms, racetracks or other gambling activities. The implication that Nintendo or its executives are somehow mixed up with gambling is absurd."

The company does, however, manufacture a home computer link being tested by the Japan Racing Association, which regulates horse racing and off-track betting in Japan. The system allows in-home wagering on racing.

The chairman of the Major League Baseball ownership committee that will consider the Seattle group's offer said the gambling questions could pose serious problems.

"Any connection to legalized gambling is out," St. Louis Cardinals chairman Fred Kuhlmann told the Tampa Tribune newspaper.

Seattle officials who support the sale scoffed at the notion Nintendo was connected to gambling.

"They've got about as much connection to gambling as the telephone company or IBM," said Seattle Deputy Mayor Bob Watt. "One of these gambling networks in Japan runs on personal computers."

Washington State Lottery spokesman Dick Paulson said this morning that Control Data Corp., which also operates the on-line lottery system here, approached the Washington lottery commission this month to demonstrate an in-home link through the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo participated in that presentation, Paulson said.

"Nintendo is not trying to sell us a gambling system," Paulson said. "They made a presentation on what it (the Nintendo device) looks like. It would hook up to the Washington lottery, so the lottery would record the play."

Minnesota Lottery Director George Andersen said Nintendo's involvement in no way constituted involvement in gambling.

"Theirs was merely the vehicle by which we would do our business," Andersen said. "They were not under contract with the lottery. They were not involved in gambling."

Andersen said Nintendo merely manufactured a game cartridge allowing connection to the lottery computer through a telephone modem. Control Data would have handled the actual lottery transactions. That concept apparently was the one proposed to Washington officials this month.

Andersen said Control Data would have downloaded the computer lottery data into the Nintendo device, which was in effect a cartridge with a blank memory.

"I think it's a red herring, if you want my opinion. Nintendo was certainly not involved in gambling and would not have been (involved) through this project."

Besides, Andersen said, state lotteries are legal.

"Lotteries are run by state government," he said. "They're not like bookies in the back room of the bowery."

Legal or not, any connection to gambling is taboo to Major League Baseball. Baseball prohibits owners' connections to any form of gambling. Several potential ownership groups have been rejected because members had financial interests in horse-racing tracks.

Houston Astros owner John McMullen's attempts to purchase a racetrack in Houston have met with violent opposition from baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, who is pressuring McMullen to sell the team.

Kuhlmann said the Nintendo gambling issue "probably will be a factor" in his committee's evaluation of the Seattle proposal.

In addition to the $75 million from Nintendo, the Seattle ownership group includes $50 million from executives of McCaw Cellular, Microsoft, Puget Power and Boeing. Kuhlmann's committee is to make a recommendation to baseball owners on March 4.

The gambling reports come as the Nintendo-backed proposal appeared to be gaining favor with key baseball officials. Baseball's deputy commissioner said this week the proposal might be approved if the group could demonstrate the Japanese investment would be locally controlled.

The 60 percent investment in the M's by Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo who lives in Japan, would be controlled by his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa, a 15-year resident of the Northwest.

The specter of gambling - historically, baseball's most feared association - could give owners opposed to foreign investment new grounds to reject the offer.