AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: Poker machines to be destroyed
DATE: 4:32 AM
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BODY:
<p class="mobile-post">A district court judge ordered several video poker machines to be destroyed
by the Rowan County Sheriff's Office. Steve Macaluso, owner of the Metrolina
Wildlife Park, pleaded guilty to having the video poker machines. Macaluso
disagreed with the charges because he said most of the machines weren't even
operable. But under North Carolina law, warehousing the video game machines
is illegal. "Every machine has to be registered so they could be accounted
for," said Sheriff George Wilhelm. "The people who warehouse can slip them
in and stick them into a place and the state of North Carolina might not be
aware of where they were. Video poker will be fazed out of North Carolina by
July, when all machines must be removed from businesses and their property.
After July, anyone caught with video poker machines, working or not, could
be charged.</p>
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