Video Poker Ban Passes House
The state House changed course Wednesday after six years and overwhelmingly approved a bill that would make video poker machines illegal by next summer, a decision reflecting Speaker Jim Black's changing attitude on whether to preserve the games. By a vote of 114-1, the measure would slowly reduce the number of machines any retailer could operate. The existing maximum is three.
The bill would reduce it to two by Oct. 1, one by March 1 and zero on July 1, 2007. The machine owner would be guilty of a felony if convicted. The measure now heads to the Senate, which has approved bills that would ban video poker five times since 2000. But pressure built in the House for a ban this year after Black, D-Mecklenburg, was linked to state election and federal investigations of the video poker industry.
Black's campaign also received $167,000 in industry contributions during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, according to the campaign reform group Democracy North Carolina. The House bill would retain an exception for video gambling machines at the casino on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian reservation.
June 1, 2006
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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