On the left: what's actually killing Missourians. On the right: the cases the AG's office is actually filing — felony prosecutions of small-business owners over "no-chance" gaming machines. Same year. Same Missouri.
These aren't hypotheticals. These are AG Hanaway's own announcements and the cases her office is putting on the docket.
Briarwood One Stop (convenience store / gas station) — Brookline, Greene County
Charges
Two felony counts of first-degree promoting gambling + civil suit under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act + permanent injunction sought
AG Hanaway held a Springfield press conference with the Greene County Prosecutor, Springfield PD, and the Highway Patrol to announce charges over 12 'no-chance' games inside the store.
Source: AGO press releaseHundreds of gas stations, convenience stores, bars, and truck stops — Statewide, Missouri
Charges
Statewide shutdown under pressure from federal probe; AG warned remaining host stores they could face criminal charges
Torch pulled its 'no-chance' machines across Missouri after a federal investigation. Hanaway told the Missouri Independent her office would consider dropping charges against stores that cooperated — but kept the threat of prosecution on the table for any holdouts.
Source: Jefferson City News TribuneEagle Stop (N. Providence, Columbia) + Bagnell Eagle Stop (Lake Ozark) — Boone County & Miller County
Charges
Promoting illegal gambling — charges filed in Boone County and a second case in Miller County after a Highway Patrol sting and raid
Missouri State Highway Patrol and local officers raided the Columbia Eagle Stop on N. Providence and seized video gambling machines. AG Hanaway and MSHP held a joint press event announcing the sting; a parallel case was filed against Gier over machines at the Bagnell Eagle Stop in Lake Ozark.
Source: ABC 17 NewsWoody's Pub and Grub (neighborhood bar) — Ashland, Boone County
Charges
Promoting illegal gambling — charges filed alongside the Eagle Stop case after the same MSHP sting
The same May 12 sting that hit Eagle Stop also targeted Woody's Pub and Grub, a small bar in Ashland. The bar's owner was charged with promoting illegal gambling over the gaming machines on premises.
Source: 93.9 The EagleSt. Louis and Kansas City consistently post some of the lowest homicide clearance rates in the United States. Most killers, statistically, are never charged.
Felons rearrested for shootings, carjackings, and aggravated assaults churn through the system without coordinated statewide intervention from the AG's office.
Armed carjackings remain stubbornly high in Missouri's metros and have crept into suburban and rural communities — often involving juvenile offenders.
Trafficking networks moving deadly drugs through Missouri claim more lives every year than any single 'no-chance' machine ever could.
Backlogs and under-resourced prosecutions leave vulnerable Missourians without protection across rural counties — a problem statewide leadership could actually address.
Two felony counts and a civil injunction against the managing officer of Briarwood One Stop — over 12 gaming machines.
Public ultimatums to every host store in Missouri to "unplug, shut down, and remove the devices immediately" or face the same charges.
Joint appearances with local prosecutors, police chiefs, and the Highway Patrol — staged for the gaming-machine cases, not for unsolved homicides.
Stacking civil enforcement onto the criminal counts — making the cost of defense crushing for a single-location small business.
Cases optimized for press releases and TV cameras rather than reducing the violence Missourians actually fear.
Every link below is a real story about the AG's prosecutions of small-business owners over no-chance gaming machines.
"Promoting gambling: 2 counts.
Promoting public safety: pending."