Lawmakers, Religious Groups Team Up to Ban Video Poker

Video poker machines, often under the guise of "amusement games," have thrived the past 20 years. After having trouble regulating them, South Carolina outlawed them altogether, compelling gamblers to cross over into Georgia, as reported by The Dominion Post (Morgantown, WV). This has brought together the state legislature and religious groups in a combined effort to ban the machines.

Often set up in unused buildings, the gambling halls do not have the "ambience of the Atlantic City Boardwalk," but still do not lack customers. They come at all hours and spend from $1 to $100 at a time on the chance of winning gift certificates.

Under a 1991 law passed in Georgia, cash payouts are illegal; however, some operators circumvent the law by allowing winners to trade prizes for money, or simply ignore the law by giving cash awards.