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RALEIGH - Greensboro Rep. Earl Jones was the lone House member to vote against a bill aimed at outlawing video slot games that have proliferated since the legislature outlawed video poker two years ago.

In fact, Jones exercised a legislative objection that forces the House to vote again on the bill today before sending the measure to the Senate, despite an initial 116-1 result Tuesday.

"I think people really just want to be left alone," Jones said. "If a person wants to play cards or play the lottery or participate in this activity...it just seems to be overreaching relative to government telling people what to do."

The new slot devices operate under the guise of "sweepstakes," whose players find out whether they have won by way of a video game that looks and plays much like a casino game.

"We've been blindsided by these new games," said Rep. Ray Rapp, a Madison County Democrat and one of the bill's two primary authors.

If the bill gets final approval, it would ban the video slot games starting Dec. 1.

An effort to delay that date was voted down, with many members saying that operators shouldn't be rewarded for finding a loophole in the state's video poker law.

"They swept in here overnight, and they can go out overnight as well," said Bryan Holloway, a Republican from Stokes County who represents parts of Rockingham County. But after the floor debate, Jones argued that people could lose their jobs if this bill went through. And he said the state itself was in the gambling business with the lottery and shouldn't treat private businesses differently.

The flip side of that argument came up on the floor, with legislators arguing that the lottery - which funds public education programs - could lose money to these machines.

Guilford and Rockingham counties have seen a lot of action over the slot devices. Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson has refused to prosecute cases involving the machines because he believes they're legal. Meanwhile Rockingham District Attorney Phil Berger Jr. brought charges against 10 people earlier this year in connection with them.

At the same time, companies that make and distribute the games sued in a High Point courtroom to have a judge to declare their businesses to be legal.

As part of that case, the judge issued an injunction against law enforcement making arrests in connection with the machines, forcing Berger to drop charges in his county.

Jones said those court battles should be allowed to play out. He acknowledged that he was standing alone on the issue, saying he wanted to give his colleagues more time.

"I guarantee you, a year from now, two years from now, I'm going to end up being right,'' Jones said, "and the General Assembly's actions are going to end up being wrong because I think there's a fundamental issue of businesses being treated fairly."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com