SANFORD -- The state lawmaker who led a closed-door committee meeting last week for House Republicans to hear from lobbyists and special interests on video gambling is, himself, in the gambling business.
Rep. Mike C. Stone, a Sanford Republican, owns a small grocery where customers can play a variety of sweepstakes games on four desktop computer terminals. The games mimic the spinning wheels of a slot machine. Until this weekend, customers could also take their chances on four video-poker-style stand-up machines that lined a wall near the canned vegetables.
Stone said he removed the video-poker-style machines Friday night after repeated phone calls from an N&O reporter.
State law currently prohibits "electronic machines and devices used for sweepstakes purposes" across North Carolina, the result of a high-profile ban passed last year that was the third attempt by lawmakers in the past decade to wipe out all forms of video gambling. A first offense is a misdemeanor, but repeated violations are felonies.
Stone, who won his House seat in November after serving on the Sanford City Council, said in an interview Saturday that the machines at his O'Connell's Supermarket on Main Street were OK because of the gaming industry's interpretation of state law. "Everything we do is legal," Stone said.
But in the midst of the interview, he suddenly said that he was getting out of the business. "We're going to be out of it," he said. "We're done."
He said he recently sold a sports bar that also had the gaming machines in it.
Where interests may lie
Many owners of video gaming machines and Internet sweepstakes cafes have kept their devices operating while the industry fights last year's ban on two fronts: in the courts, and with legislators and Gov. Bev Perdue.
Perdue and lawmakers, looking for money to hold off deep budget cuts, are considering making video gambling legal or letting the state lottery run it.
Gambling interests are trying to strike a deal and get permission to exist in exchange for more regulation and taxation. The political effort is ongoing and intense.
A recent Guilford County Superior Court ruling favored operators. But a Wake County ruling upheld the statewide ban. The state's sheriffs oppose video gambling, though enforcement of the law has been rare while the issue is in the courts.
Stone said he favors letting small business owners like himself run video gambling and supports an outright ban on them before he'd want the state involved.
"I'm a free market guy. ... I'm not for letting the government go in and do the same thing they did with the lottery," he said. "We need to educate ourselves."
Jane Pinsky, who heads the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform, said the public should be concerned about Stone's business interests possibly mixing with his political role.
"He shouldn't be participating in this if he has that financial interest," Pinsky said. "Rule No. 1 in ethics is that you avoid even the perception of using that public office for personal gain. I would think he should step away from it, just recuse."
She and others said this only adds to concerns about why the House Republicans held a closed-door meeting Thursday in which Stone, heeding the request of Rep. David Lewis, a Dunn Republican, ordered an N&O reporter to leave the room just as the first of a half-dozen pro-gambling lobbyists and special interests was about to speak. Stone denied the newspaper's appeal to stay in the meeting.
Stone downplayed his role in the meeting and said the agenda was put together by the office of House Speaker Thom Tillis. Stone said he had nothing to do with the lineup of lobbyists: "It came from Tillis' office."
He pointed out that advocates for and against gambling spoke out.
"And just to be clear, I couldn't comment as the chairman of that meeting. ... All I did was walk in that room and have that meeting," Stone said. "I didn't run anything except the agenda."
Tillis has defended the closed meeting on a policy issue - and others like it - as a way for Republicans to hear about hot-button matters outside the media's glare. Democrats and advocates of open government have criticized the meetings as fostering too much secrecy.
Fifteen to 20 legislators attended the meeting, a combined session of three out of eight internal House Republican caucus policy committees: Budget, Jobs and Liberty. Tillis appointed Stone chairman of the Jobs policy committee.
Stone also is vice chairman of the House Committee on Commerce and Job Development.
At the store
On Friday, a day after the closed meeting, an N&O reporter visited Stone's grocery store in Sanford and observed 10 video gaming machines along one wall; at least two appeared not to work. The grocery also sells state lottery tickets and instant-win phone cards; one card gives four minutes of phone time for $1 - and the chance to win up to $8,888.
Repeated attempts to contact Stone on Friday at his home and his office were not successful.
Reached by phone Saturday at the grocery, Stone acknowledged that he operated machines - but said he had only four in place. "I have four sweepstakes machines here," he said.
Later Saturday, an N&O reporter met Stone at his store and he answered questions about the industry, the politics of the gaming issue, and about his role as chairman of the closed-door meeting.
He and a clerk then showed how a sweepstakes game works: Images and symbols on the computer screen spun past then stopped, declaring each "play" a win or loss. The computer program creates a pre-determined winner for each play of the game, they said.
Because the game is not subject to chance, it's legal, Stone said.
After six clicks of the computer mouse, $2 was gone.
Asked why the four video-poker-style machines were now gone, replaced since the night before with a table and chairs, Stone said The N&O's inquiries concerned him and so had decided to remove them.
He said he took them to his house.
He then said the other four remaining computer gaming machines would be gone within a week.
Asked why he would quit now, Stone said he was concerned about the attention sure to come his way.
"I don't want to be judged," he said, "so we're going to get rid of it all. This is a small town."
The decision to fold will cost him $500 to $600 a month, he said.
