Time and time again, proposals to ban video poker in North Carolina have landed in the state House controlled by Speaker Jim Black. Each time they've gone nowhere.

Now, with the state Senate poised to approve a ban as early as today, the question is whether Black will use his power to stifle a House vote.

This time, Black faces the issue in a difficult legal and political climate.

A federal grand jury is collecting information about Black's involvement with the video poker industry. The state Board of Elections investigated Black's campaign contributions and asked the Wake County prosecutor to look into donations from 18 contributors with ties to video poker.

In a raid about two weeks ago, state and federal law enforcement agents and the Cumberland County sheriff department seized more than $1 million from home safes and 100 video poker machines from local businesses and homes. The raid is the latest mark against an industry that law enforcement agencies say is hard to control.

State Sen. Tony Rand said Wednesday that it was past time to outlaw the machines.

"There's been a lot of attention paid to it," said Rand, a Democrat from Fayetteville. "We thought it was a good time to go ahead and get this out of the way."

In a meeting Wednesday lasting a few minutes, a Senate committee approved legislation that would make video poker illegal in the state beginning Dec. 1. The proposal would protect video poker at the casino on the Cherokee reservation in Western North Carolina.

Black's response

Despite the spotlight on his fundraising involving video poker, Black said he would not be pressured into supporting a ban.

"Spotlights have nothing to do with what we do in the House," he said. "We'll have it in committee and deal with it from there."

Black says he supports video poker because the industry creates jobs.

The Senate has approved bans in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2005.

That first year, the ban bill was rewritten to limit machines to three at each location and to prohibit new machines from coming into the state. That is now the law.

In 2002, the Senate's ban bill died in a House committee without a vote.

The House took the Senate's 2003 ban bill and changed it to a proposal that would increase regulation. The Senate held out for a ban, and the proposal died.

Last year, the Senate put the video poker ban into its version of the budget. The House removed it and never voted on the provision.

Poker industry's move

To prepare for the criticism it knew was coming, the video poker industry commissioned a consultant's study of the machines' contributions to the state economy. They hope the report, which an operator said should be ready in days, will stave off calls for a ban.

"We are tired of being sensationalized and battered and very erroneously reported on," said George "Butch" Trent, a video poker machine operator from Reidsville and member of the N.C. Amusement Machine Association.

The state has about 10,000 video poker machines that bring in more than $100 million a year, according to the N.C. Department of Revenue. All machines are supposed to be registered with the local sheriff.

A ban would punish legitimate operators, Trent said. The way to shut down illegal machines, he said, is with more uniform enforcement of the current law.

Video poker prizes are limited to replays or to less than $10 in merchandise.

But county sheriffs and state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents say that video poker players are often paid their winnings in cash and are handed much more than $10.

The N.C. Sheriffs' Association has called for a ban since 2000, and ALE wants a ban, too.

Complex investigations

Investigations into illegal payouts are time consuming and expensive, ALE Director Mike Robertson said.

The Cumberland County case is the biggest, Robertson said, since a federal investigation netted former state Transportation Secretary Garland Garrett on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering in connection with his family's video poker business.

The Cumberland investigation took three years and involved more than 150 officers.

To investigate illegal payouts, an agent could spend two days playing video poker until a clerk is comfortable enough to hand over cash winnings, Robertson said. Then the agent may have to win once or twice more, to establish a pattern of illegal payments.

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the county has not had a problem with video poker, but said a ban would give the department one less thing to worry about. The county has 450 registered machines.

"If the legislature doesn't come up with a ban," Harrison said, "we're going to deal with it like any other law on the book."

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