Video slot machine prohibition rolling
I wrote earlier this year about video slots, a server-based video game that simulate gambling and popped up all over following the demise of video poker. You can find them everywhere from gas stations to rented strip-mall spaces that do nothing but sell phone cards and host the slot terminals.
The machines have been operating in a gray area for a couple years now. The machines have been the subjects of raids by ALE agents, controversy among DAs and at least one lawsuit.
Well it seems the General Assembly is about to turn that grey to black and white with a bill that would outlaw the machines. The background here is a little Byzantine, but if you need more check back on these posts:
Background 1.
Background 2.
Background 3.
I spoke tonight with Rep. Deborah Ross, who chairs the Judiciary I committee in the House. Tomorrow, her committee will take up Senate Bill 180, which is an unrelated measure right now. That bill will be gutted and the language prohibiting video slots will be inserted.
If the House were to pass this bill, the Senate could, in theory, simply vote to concur with the language rather than vetting it through the full committee process.
As Ross explained it, the new bill will outlaw all but a very narrow segment of "server-based sweepstakes" games. That's essentially the sanitized version of what a video slot machine is.
J-I meets at 10 a.m. in room 1228.
Update: The committee has sent the bill to the full House for consideration.
Comments (3)
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To: Beachnag (dated 03/28/08),
You are just an _____. These machines are illegal, anyway you at it. If I want to gamble I will go to Cherokee, Atlantic City or Las Vegas to do this. Because all we are doing is making the Humble Brothers filty rich, and making people that are already proverty strickened even poorer. I don't know about you but I get pretty damn tired of keeping these people up. Take the time to go by Sumner Curb Market on Old Randleman Rd, or the Internet Cafe on Randleman Rd and see what type of people are in these places playing these games. I work with someone that counts pennies to eat lunch on, but will go after work and lose $20, to try and win $20. This is a bible belt community and I can't believe that the Baptist groups have not lobbied the fact that these machines are illegal. As far as Contest are concerned, they are not illegal, and it is my right to play or not to play.
So if you "Beachnag" want to keep up everyone in this time of recession. Go ahead.
As far as I'm concerned, this bill can't get passed fast enough to make these machines illegal.
Posted on July 1, 2008 11:16 AM
Dear Snowday:
If these "things" were "Illegal" then why do we need new legislation to stop them? Easy answer! They are just LEGAL sweepstakes games...nothing more. And the last time I was inside an Internet cafe..... no one was being held there against their will! If you don't want to play..... STAY AWAY... start minding YOUR business... not mine!
Posted on July 4, 2008 10:30 AM
The problem is, you go in and win 1000 bucks.
So far so good. But is NC getting the income tax from that 1000 bucks? No. Because in order to get around some other law the places pay out in 500 dollars at a time and take no ID, SSN. And if so, no verification.
So NC loses income tax from the winner.
Can you say good bye sweepstakes?
I can name at least 6 or seven of those little sweepstakes places that do just that.
Plus there are some other technical 'video gaming' reg reasons they are already illegal. So no argument here. If it says on the screen how much you get? It's illegal. If there's no skill? it's illegal.
Just go read the law.
Posted on July 10, 2008 2:05 AM