Casino Video Poker

The USA has such a big budget gap of nearly $6 billion that a lot of attention is now focused America’s state leaders to close the gap. Many proposals have been brought forward to close the gap, one of which is to legalize video poker machines. Democrat State Representative Earl Jones is the only sponsor to this house bill 15-37.

It’s not getting much support from fellow lawmakers, but according to Earl Jones it’s a no brainer. “Sometimes the right thing to do is controversial but it’s still the right thing to do.“ This bill if it came into effect would make video poker machines legal again and bring in a massive $460 million annually. With the money, half would go to the budget gap and the rest would go to schools. Jones argues that people should be allowed to play video poker because they are allowed to play the lottery… “North Carolina passed the lottery the sky didn’t fall down on anybody’s head.“

Earl Jones makes another good point where the state made it illegal to play casino video poker in 2006, but in the previous year they made it legal to play the lottery… they broke the law! “It’s also smacks a monopoly on type of antitrust principals because you have the government involved in gaming activity and then they are going to outlaw their competitor from participating in gaming activity… this particular case video poker.“

North Carolina has an interesting, yet controversial, video poker history. The State legalized video poker in 1993 and then in 2000 created new regulations for them. After that they were banned and completely phased out by 2007. But in February this year, the ban was overturned by a Wake County judge because it’s unfair to allow Indian tribes to have casino games in North Carolina and not anyone else. The state is appealing so the ruling is in limbo.