News-Record.com

RALEIGH - The state will ban a kind of video slot machine that has proliferated since legislators passed a ban on video poker in 2006.

The new games use terminals connected to remote computer servers and are based on a sweepstakes scheme. They take advantage of what legislators say was an unintentional loophole in the earlier law.

A bill the General Assembly passed Thursday afternoon, with only two dissenting votes in the House, closes that loophole and is on its way to the governor for his signature.

"We hope it will put an end to video poker once and for all," said Melanie Wade Goodwin, a Richmond County Democrat who was on of the measure's primary supporters.

The bill has been in a conference committee for much of this week, as legislators tried to work out final touches.

The final draft ensures that it does not accidentally outlaw the casinos operated by the Cherokee Indian Tribe.

It also broadens the prohibition to include any sort of promotion, not just sweepstakes, that would use such computers.

Possessing or distributing the video slot games will become a crime Dec. 1.