Larry D. King: State vs. private gambling

The Aug. 24 editorial “Heeding Bob Hall’s call” dealt with a call for investigating possible corruption, bribery, violation of campaign laws, etc., related to the video poker industry’s lobbying efforts.

Those investigations are needed, but I was struck by two sentences: “The industry has called itself everything from video poker to sweepstakes cafes to other more innocuous names, but it hasn’t called itself what it is, which is gambling.” “North Carolina has long banned gambling because of what it does to individuals with gambling problems and their families.”

Excuse me, “North Carolina has long banned gambling”? Then what is the state lottery and why is the General Assembly trying to expand it?

The Aug. 23 news article “State could widen lottery’s reach” indicated that our legislators want to add Internet-based games played on computers or phones, video lottery terminals similar to slot machines and Club Keno played on terminals in restaurants, bars and clubs.

So it’s OK for the state to provide “video poker” through the lottery, but that’s a no-no for private industry because that would be gambling!

In the immortal words of Barry Saunders, “Say what?”

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Larry D. King: State vs. private gambling."