Most of those video poker machines were pioneered by a guy named Pasquale "Patsy" Feruccio and his vending company named Liberty Venfing, known as the mafia's leading expert on video poker machines and a high ranking member of the LaRocca Family in Pittsburgh. Here is a 1993 article on Pat Feruccio of Canton, OH:


A Canton, OH man who has been described by the FBI and Alphonse D'Arco as the Mafia's "specialist" in video poker machines has pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
Pasquale M. (Pat) Ferruccio, 74, admitted leading a gambling operation that used the video poker machines in Akron, Kent and Ravenna and in Kentucky and DuBois, Pa., between 1978 and 1988.
Ferruccio entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Cleveland Monday. His trial on a four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in 1989 was to begin yesterday.
The agreement says prosecutors and Ferruccio and his lawyer agreed to a 30-month prison sentence and that Ferruccio would be allowed to self-report to prison in January. Ferruccio also has agreed to forfeit $100,000 to the government. Prosecutors will drop three other charges against Ferruccio, including operating an illegal gambling business and interstate travel in aid of such a business.
John B. Gibbons, Ferruccio's lawyer, declined to comment on the plea until Ferruccio is sentenced by Judge John M. Manos after a report by the probation department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Becker, of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force, declined to comment because of two pending cases stemming from the same indictment.
Ferruccio's son, Rocco, and George McCarty, 73, both of Canton, are charged with participating in an illegal gambling business and are awaiting trial before Manos.
Prosecutors have said in court documents that a former FBI agent would testify at trial that, while the agent was working undercover in Florida, Pasquale Ferruccio was introduced as a "made" member of the Mafia by members and associates of New York's Bonnano Family.
The former FBI agent, Edward Robb, would have testified Ferruccio was introduced "as the Family's specialist in video poker machines" and Ferruccio had Robb travel to Canton to observe Ferruccio's operation in an effort to start a gambling partnership in Florida, the prosecutors said.
"Further evidence demonstrates that Ferruccio admitted he had to seek permission from the Mafia to run the Pennsylvania operation charged in the indictment," the prosecutors said.
The prosecutors also said the Pennsylvania Crime Commission and Angelo A. Lonardo, an admitted member of the Cleveland Mafia, had identified Ferruccio as an inducted member of the LaRocca/Genovese Mafia Family in Pittsburgh.
Statements by the prosecutors, Becker and Stephen H. Jigger, then head of the strike force office in Cleveland, were made in response to a motion Ferruccio filed asking that the charges be dismissed.
"That's what the government has said about him for years," Gibbons said yesterday of Ferruccio's reputed organized crime ties. "They can say what they want to say, but no one has actually proven it. It's not relevant to the case."
The indictment of Pasquale Ferruccio was the result of a 3-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and FBI.
The racketeering charge against Pasquale Ferruccio alleged Rocco A. Ferruccio provided the gambling operation with facilities, supplies and personnel through Liberty Vending Co., a Canton company Rocco Ferruccio owned and operated.
Pasquale Ferruccio is the former owner and president of Liberty Vending and has continued to maintain a private office there, according to a statement released by U.S. Attorney Joyce J. George yesterday.
McCarty allegedly managed gambling operations in the Dover and New Philadelphia areas of Ohio and helped repair and transport poker machines.
The machines have been determined to be illegal gambling devices because players insert money and are able to place bets during poker-like video games. Payoffs are made by owners of establishments in which the machines are installed.
Two other defendants, Randal J. Cottrill and Carole A. (Terry) Eschliman pleaded guilty last year before Judge Frank J. Battisti.
Cottrill, 29, of Las Vegas, was sentenced to four months in prison and four months of home arrest after pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling business and interstate travel in the operation of the gambling business.
Eschliman, 52, of Canton, pleaded guilty to participating in an illegal gambling business and was sentenced to three years of probation.