A law that North Carolina legislators passed in 2006 that banned video poker, except for an Indian reservation, has been overturned by a Superior Court judge, who says you can’t have one law for one part of the state and a different law for another.
For years lawmakers have been trying to figure out a way to legalize internet-based video poker, terminals which sit in many gas station and convenience stores. Players play on them using a prepaid phone card.
But the legislature’s latest attempt to address that just seems to have created problems for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and its Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, which lawmakers had not intended to harm.
The judge has stayed the execution of his order pending an appeal, so no one has been affected by the ruling as yet.
Meanwhile, the tribe is asking for a new gaming compact that would allow it to expand the games it offers to include poker and blackjack.
The governor, Bev Perdue, said she wants to figure out how the court ruling might affect this process before moving forward. “We have a team of lawyers going back to see what that means for the compact,” she said last month.
