Editorial: Lawmakers in North Carolina close a gaming 'loophole'

Wednesday, July 14, 2010  

"A state that runs its own lottery and is home to a Native American tribe that runs a casino can hardly claim the moral high ground when it comes to regulating gambling. But if we value our communities, the line has to be drawn somewhere and the Honorables did it: They mustered the courage to banish the "sweepstakes parlors" and "Internet cafés" that have proliferated throughout North Carolina.

Well, most of them. Three of our Honorables – State Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, and Reps. Danny McComas, R-New Hanover, and Carolyn Justice, R-Pender, opposed the ban. Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, supported it, as did Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, who once called video poker and its counterparts "the crack cocaine of gambling." Rep. Dewey Hill, D-Columbus, didn't vote.

The experience in these "parlors" is hardly reminiscent of Las Vegas, or even Cherokee, where a huge casino and high-rise hotel stand amid much humbler surroundings. The cafes were the gaming industry's way around a 2006 ban on video poker, at which time the General Assembly intended to rid the state of machines that took people's money in exchange for a chance at prizes or, even though it was already illegal, cash.

Law enforcement officers quickly discovered that these allegedly harmless diversions often were a front for a gambling den with cash payouts and big bets. Back rooms of ostensibly legitimate businesses were raided often. Our sheriffs – those who weren't busy taking kickbacks to protect illegal gambling, anyway – pleaded for the state to ban the machines altogether."

Get the Story:
Editorial - Video gambling industry found a loophole, Honorables closed it (The Wilmington StarNews 7/14)