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RALEIGH — The future of video poker in North Carolina could hinge on a case heard by a three-judge Court of Appeals panel Wednesday.

Lawyers representing the video poker industry told the court that federal law prohibits the General Assembly from restricting certain kinds of gambling to tribal reservations while outlawing it elsewhere.

“Saying you can’t have any (video poker) anywhere else in the state, while you allow them on tribal land, is not a comprehensive public policy,” argued Hugh Stevens, a lawyer for the video poker operators.

The case stems from a lawsuit brought by McCracken and Amick Inc., a Fayetteville-based video poker machine vendor. They convinced a Superior Court judge that a 2006 state ban on video poker conflicted with federal law.

The state and lawyers for the attorney general’s office argued Wednesday that the federal law gives states broad latitude to set public policy as long as Native American tribes get treatment at least on par with others in the state.

“The General Assembly sets the public policy of North Carolina unless it acts unconstitutionally,” said Special Deputy Attorney General Mark Davis. “The plaintiffs are trying to tell the North Carolina General Assembly what the public policy should be.”

Video poker has a checkered history in North Carolina.

Lawmakers legalized the games in 1993 and imposed additional regulations in 2000. But law enforcement authorities, including sheriffs who were charged with regulating the games, lobbied to ban them.

The General Assembly enacted a ban that went into effect in July 2007.

Since then, some machines that resemble video gambling have come back into the state, taking advantage of uncertainty created by this case and a case that originated in High Point. Most of those machines are based on sweepstakes systems.

It’s unclear what impact, if any, the Court of Appeals ruling would have on sweepstakes-style machines. But if the Court of Appeals rules for the state, it could help lawmakers clamp down on all nontribal video gaming.

“This has been a fight to protect the citizens of North Carolina since 2000,” said Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, who made the trip to Raleigh to listen to the case. Page said video poker has a negative effect on families.

“People get caught up in it,” he said. “And, of course, it affects the economic situation in the family unit.”

The case heard Wednesday is one of three working their way through the courts. Of those three, this one could have the most far-reaching effect. If the justices strike down the law, video poker would become legal throughout the state once again.

However, the appeals court — Robert Hunter, Martha Geer and Linda Stephens — seemed skeptical of the video poker industry’s case, repeatedly asking why lawmakers couldn’t restrict certain forms of gambling to tribal lands. They particularly pressed Stevens on why they should void a law that does not face a constitutional challenge.

“I always thought the legislature set public policy,” Hunter said.

Geer pointed to an unusual part of the 2006 North Carolina law that specifically protected the Cherokees’ gaming rights in the event the rest of the statute was struck down.

“That voiding clause … is in some ways unprecedented,” Geer said. “Isn’t that the strongest statement of public policy that the General Assembly could give, which is, 'This is how we want it’?”

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