Yasin v. Byrne

This action was brought by plaintiff Taysir A. Yasin, seeking a writ of mandamus to compel several officials of the city of Chicago to issue to him tax emblems for two electronic video games. The city had refused to issue emblems for the games on the ground that they were illegal gambling devices under section 28 — 2 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 28 — 2). The two principal issues addressed at trial were whether any skill is involved in playing the video games and whether the games could be altered to permit their use as gambling devices. The trial court…