News-Record.com

So I heard from a source or two last week that the North Carolina Education Lottery was looking at online games like Keno or video poker.

It's a pretty fair guess that at least part this rumor was inspired by the recent spate of news over video poker - including two court cases that could lead to legalizing some or all of the industry. (The statute that created the lottery gives it pretty broad authority to create whatever games it wants leaves, so legally the door seems pretty wide open.)

The rumor also fit with something I heard from video poker operators back before the General Assembly took a crack at outlawing them. They argued that their industry could adjust to work with the lottery, and that they could become a servicing arm for the machines while the lottery ran the servers and what.

But the lottery's boss, Director Tom Shaheen, says that video poker is not in the cards - at least not right now.

"This is not something I've brought up to anybody - never taken it to our commissioners, never taken it downtown," Shaheen said.

Part of why the video poker idea hasn't come up, Shaheen said, has to do with the age of the lottery.

"We're still building a basic lottery here, and that can't happen over night," Shaheen said. He noted that the lottery has just added a Pick-4 game.

As for what should happen with video poker - outside of the lottery context - Shaheen wasn't saying. He acknowledged, rightly, that if he were to say "Yes, it's bad, get rid of it," the statement would be seen as self-serving for the lottery.

"These are political things, and we're not a political machine over here," Shaheen said.

So, does video poker cut into lottery sales?

"Certainly, that (banning video poker) would benefit the lottery and benefit our sales - but these are North Carolina issues, not lottery issues," Shaheen said. "My concern, my focus is on what affects this lottery directly." And, he pointed out, the lottery began operating before the video poker ban fully went into effect and continues to thrive even though the industry lingers.

So is video poker not in the lottery's future?

"If the climate were right," Shaheen said - re-emphasizing that the climate is NOT right today. "In part it's a social issue, what's acceptable and what isn't."