news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Gauging the effect of a new ban on Internet-based sweepstakes games that mimic gambling was itself a dicey business Wednesday.

Depending on where players looked, they found retailers that were open and serving customers, while others were closed for good or closed and awaiting new software.

Businesses that remained open legally were running a mix of games that were less Las Vegas than Looney Toons. Duck hunting and penguin bowling had replaced slots and Pot-o-Gold.

“The games we have now really aren’t as entertaining. ... Some of the customers are saying they are boring,” said Desiray McLaurin, the manager at Summit Internet Services on Summit Avenue.

McLaurin said she expects to lose customers who would spend six hours a day in her store.

Some customers already have threatened to take their business to illegal gaming parlors they know of that will still provide the newly banned games, she said.

In Rockingham County, John Flippen was having a hard time finding even the modified games. He tried three sweepstakes shops in Reidsville before driving to the Eden Business Center at the Eden Mall, which also was closed.

Flippen, who said he plays once or twice a month, said he doesn’t understand why the state had a problem with it.

“It’s just games,” he said leaving the mall. “It’s something to spend your time doing. You don’t win a whole lot, but it’s something to do.”

Just as owners and customers were confused, law enforcement officials in Guilford and Rockingham counties and across the state were waiting on guidance from N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper. A spokeswoman for Cooper said his office would be issuing guidance, but not until late Wednesday or today.

“We’re in a difficult spot,” said Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger Jr. He has advised police officers and sheriff’s deputies in his jurisdiction to hold off enforcing the new ban themselves.

“I think the law is pretty clear as set forth in the statute, but the enforcement mechanism is unclear given what’s gone on in court,” Berger said.

The ban’s history stretches back to 2006, when the General Assembly voted to outlaw stand-alone video poker machines. That ban took full effect in July 2007 and almost immediately sweepstakes-based systems that mimicked casino games started popping up throughout the state.

Unlike their stand-alone ancestors, the sweepstakes terminals connect to a remote server and don’t rely an any decisions players make to determine the outcome. Rather, game makers have said in court that players are simply revealing the outcome of a sweepstakes in an entertaining way.

After court rulings allowed sweepstakes to keep operating following a 2008 tweak to the video poker law, the industry mushroomed. While some operators emphasized that games were meant only as promotions for copier shops or selling phone time, other businesses emphasized the gambling-like aspect of the games.

This summer, the General Assembly crafted a new broader ban, which has faced two court challenges so far. A Wake County judge upheld the entire law last month, while a Guilford County judge ruled that one sentence is too broad and infringes on free speech.

That Guilford County ruling opened the door for what is being described as arcade-style games. Whether the new games are legal may depend on whether the Guilford County or Wake County rulings are upheld during expected appeals.

However, as of early Wednesday afternoon, no appeals had been filed.

Further complicating matters, Berger said, is the fact that judges in Guilford and Wake counties had issued restraining orders protecting certain kinds of machines during the two years of litigation. Although both judges have dissolved those restraining orders, official word has not reached district attorneys and sheriffs.

Meanwhile, at least two companies — Hest Technologies of Texas and Internet Sweepstakes Network with Ohio and North Carolina ties — were marketing games they said evaded the ban, even as it went into effect.

Retailers and game makers warned that some people could lose their jobs, at least temporarily, as a result of the ban.

That seemed to be the case at Pots O’ Gold on High Point Road, whose logo boasts of slot machine games. A hand-written note at the business said that it would reopen soon.

The waving “leprechaun,” who occasionally stood on the sidewalk in front of the business to attract customers was nowhere to be found.

Staff writer J. Brian Ewing contributed to this report.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com

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