News-Record.com

Earl Jones effort now has some public support from a group calling itself "The Entertainment Group of North Carolina."

You can see the group's lobbying filings here. They recorded no expenses in the first quarter.

Update: The registered lobbyist for The Entertainment Group of North Carolina is Gardner Payne, who works at McGuire Woods. His company bio lists several interesting extra-curricular activities, including serving as finance director of the Bev Perdue committee.

Update: A blog commenter suggests (correctly) that I should clarify Payne served during Perdue's days as Lt. Governor, not her latest run. And an e-mailer notes Payne helped push for the lottery earlier in the decade.

Update 2: One more time: Another e-mail says while it's correct Payne didn't have a PAID role during Gov. Perdue's 2008 run, he did have a volunteer position with the campaign.

The point of all this being: Payne has more than a passing familiarity with the current governor. And, by the way, former Gov. Mike Easley officially signed on with his firm today.

From a news release sent by the group:

RALEIGH – The Entertainment Group of North Carolina, a coalition of business owners in the amusement industry, today announced their support for legislation sponsored by State Rep. Earl Jones, which would create a set of new, tough oversight regulations and taxation of video lottery terminals.

“We are dedicated to partnering with the State of North Carolina to regulate the video terminal industry and provide a new dedicated stream of money that will help offset some of the revenue shortfalls we are currently experiencing and to provide new jobs and opportunities for locally owned and operated businesses across the state,” said Chase Brooks, Public Affairs Chairman with the Entertainment Group of North Carolina.

“We will work with Rep. Jones to bring in a new era of laws, regulation and oversight to the amusement industry. We see this as a win-win solution for the State of North Carolina and our locally owned and operated businesses,” Brooks said.

[snip]

“We already have gaming in North Carolina and the state is the largest operator. This legislation will enable locally owned and operated businesses to offer their customers a video lottery terminal that will be monitored and regulated in real time by the Department of Revenue and will pay taxes to the state,” Brooks said. He said estimated revenues for the state alone will exceed $480 million based on $2.4 billion in estimated annual gross revenues.”