AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: N.C. video poker fight looms
DATE: 11:02 AM
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BODY:
South Carolina banned video poker seven years ago. But operators didn't fold
their cards. Law enforcement officials have since seized more than 5,500
illegal machines in the state, and they still pick up an average of 100 a
month. The industry has filed multiple lawsuits and is now appealing in
federal court. With a similar ban fast approaching, N.C. officials are
bracing for the same. This month marked another deadline in a phaseout of a
video-poker industry that state revenue officials say took in $140 million
last year. Under a law passed last summer, the games will be banned
completely in North Carolina by July. "My anticipation is there will be a
fall-off, but there will still be illegal activity," said Cabarrus County
Sheriff Brad Riley, president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association. North
Carolina had about 9,000 registered video poker games last year, according
to revenue officials. Law enforcement officials lobbied to ban video poker
for years. Their efforts were stymied by legislative opposition,
particularly from then-House Speaker Jim Black, who got tens of thousands of
dollars in campaign contributions from the industry. Black resigned last
month after pleading guilty to state and federal corruption charges. The
video poker industry has faced its own legal problems. Several high-profile
operators have been prosecuted for illegal payouts. And last year, the N.C.
State Elections Board referred the industry's political action committee and
18 people tied to the business to Wake County prosecutors for alleged
campaign finance violations. No charges have been filed. Fred Ayers,
president of the N.C. Amusement Machine Association, the state lobby for
video poker owners, declined to be interviewed. One distributor expects the
ban to be costly. "Everybody's working to replace the loss of the revenue
we'll have," said Howard Cole, owner of Cole Vending in Weaverville. "I'm
sure there will be a lot of layoffs in the industry, and I'm sure our
customers will have to lay people off." Even Cole expects that when the
legal games are gone, video poker won't just go away."They're not eliminating poker in North Carolina anyway," he said. "They're
just eliminating it for the honest people and their customers."
In a warehouse in York County, S.C., law enforcement officials are storing
about 500 poker machines, all seized long after they were banned in South
Carolina. To get around the ban, officials say, they're decorated not with
cards and suits, but with balloons or pool balls.
"What the gaming industry is trying to do is slide them in the back door,"
said Cmdr. Marvin Brown of the York County Sheriff's Office.
Officials expect similar seizures to continue in North Carolina after the
ban takes effect.
"They'll all be like cocaine," said Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president
of the sheriffs association. "The mere presence of them will be contraband."
Cole, the Weaverville distributor, has about 20 video poker machines left.
After July, he expects to sell them in states where they remain legal, such
as Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi.
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