A divided three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals has struck down North Carolina’s ban on video sweepstakes games.
The judges, in a ruling issued today, said the state legislature has the authority to regulate games of chance. But the way the 2010 law was written, they said, only deals with how the results of games are communicated, rather than the underlying game itself.
“The General Assembly cannot, under the guise of regulating sweepstakes, categorically forbid sweepstakes operators from conveying the results of otherwise legal sweepstakes in a constitutionally protected manner,” the panel wrote in their ruling.
The law forbids video sweepstakes machines from displaying the results of a game on the machines’ screens.
Judges in Wake and Guilford counties have issued conflicting rulings in two different lawsuits challenging the law. Now the matter is surely headed to the state Supreme Court.
Submitted by cjarvis on 2012-03-06 11:16
