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If it looks like a video gaming machine and works like a video gaming machine ... the state legislature meant to make it illegal.

Whether the law precisely accomplishes that has become a matter of dispute as a new crop of video gaming machines springs up to replace the video poker machines that were banned last year.

As staff writer Mark Binker reported Sunday, many of these machines are operating in Greensboro, apparently with no threat of prosecution. The Guilford County District Attorney's Office doesn't think they break the law.

Alan Fields, the Alcohol Law Enforcement supervisor for the Greensboro region, disagrees: "They appear to fall squarely under the prohibition of a slot machine in the North Carolina statute," he said.

He's absolutely right, because the statute draws a broad target. It defines video gaming machines as offering poker, bingo, craps, keno and others, as well as any video game "based on or involving the random or chance matching of different pictures, words, numbers, or symbols not dependent on the skill or dexterity of the player" — just as the machines in question do.

Illegal machines require "deposit of any coin or token, or use of any credit card, debit card, or any other method that requires payment to activate play," the law adds.

Players activate the new machines with a purchased phone card, which certainly fits the definition of "any other method that requires payment."

Guilford County Assistant District Attorney Tom Carruthers told Binker the new machines make "the perfect problem for the legislature to solve." The legislature will be surprised it didn't solve the problem already. If one remains, it can be remedied by arrests, prosecutions and convictions.

Video gaming machines constitute a public nuisance and were properly banned. A transparent attempt to evade the law ought to come up lemons in court. What looks and works like a video gaming machine is meant to be illegal in North Carolina.

To comment on this editorial, visit the blog Your Voice at the Table.