The recent passage of a ban on TouchPlay machines in Iowa has touched off a heated response from the owners and patrons of at least one local business.

Charlene Mullin, owner of Char’s Amoco, 3100 S. Duff Ave., said the ban is “ridiculous.”

“It’s angered me and our customers,” she said. “I don’t feel the legislators are concerned about small business. They say they are, then they do something like this.”

According to Iowa Lottery documents, 21 businesses in Ames operate the machines, along with seven businesses in Nevada and nine in Boone. Mullin said she first heard about TouchPlay at a trade show sponsored by wholesaler Farner-Bocken.

“I wasn’t in favor of it really, but they kept promoting it and pushing it,” she said. “It was promoted as a win-win situation for the state.”

Mullin originally ordered only one TouchPlay machine, then added a second as demand grew. She had plans to add two more, reaching the limit of four machines originally set by the Iowa Legislature in March 2005.

“They said it was really going to help the small businesses, and it has,” Mullin said. “For us it’s fabulous. People come in to play these and then stay to eat.”

Mullin said concerns she has heard from customers and other business owners center on two subjects – that the Legislature originally approved the TouchPlay machines, and that they feel the state has adopted a “contradictory” stance on gambling.

“Why are they banning these and then turning around and approving five new casinos in Iowa?” she said.

Mullin says the ban is another part of an increase in regulation she has seen in recent years.

“It’s not going to stop here. They’ve already taken the pseudoephedrine out, and that’s fine,” she said. “But now I hear they want to only let us sell warm beer, because cold beer makes it too tempting to drink and drive.”

Although Mullin said she won’t lose any money on the machines themselves because a vendor paid for installation, electrical hook-up and training for the machines, she will still have to deal with the decrease in revenue.

“It’s going to hit, because now we’re used to it,” she said. “We were planning repairs and additions that we can’t do now.”

Perhaps the greatest loss, Mullin said, is the revenue the state has been receiving from the machines.

“Just think what we could have done as a state with that money,” she said.

“I just can’t believe the narrow-minded people that run our government.”

Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said the loss of revenue will not affect funding for Iowa State and other Regent institutions.

“What has passed so far for the Regents is so minimal I don’t think anyone would want to lower it,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “I don’t believe this would affect how we fund education.”

Wessel-Kroeschell said because the TouchPlay ban originated in the Senate, it limits the ability of House members to offer amendments.

“I did vote for another bill to extend the deadline to Sept. 1,” she said.

The extra time would allow businesses to earn back more of their investment, which Wessel-Kroeschell said is important.

“I do hope we can do something to help small businesses,” she said.

“I do understand how unhappy they are, I have concerns for them myself.”

Still, Wessel-Kroeschell said she voted for the TouchPlay ban on ideological grounds.

“I’m opposed to taxing the poor to pay for state government,” she said. “TouchPlay is a tax on the poor. I don’t think this is the right way to pay for the Regents institutions.”