In latest video gambling ruling, NC appeals court says sweepstakes games are illegal
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The N.C. Court of Appeals in a split decision Tuesday sided with law enforcement’s efforts to close a gaming business that operated video sweepstakes kiosks in Robeson County.
State lawmakers first sought to ban video poker and slot machines in 2006, but gaming companies circumvented the ban by changing how prizes were awarded.
Lawmakers passed subsequent laws in 2008 and 2010 to try to close loopholes, but companies have continued to try to stay in business by making changes that they say require skill to win and are not just games of chance.
In the new court decision, two of the three appellate judges determined that the video games offered by No Limit Games of Greensboro were games of chance, which are not allowed under state law.
“None of the Plaintiff’s attempts to distinguish its game from the similar games previously held by our courts to be illegal change the fact that chance is core to the game and always determines the amount a player can win,” appellate court Judge Toby Hampson wrote, with Judge April Wood concurring.
Judge Jefferson Griffin dissented, agreeing with state Superior Court Judge Michael Stone’s decision in June 2023 following a hearing that the company’s games involve skill.
“However, where, as here, a plaintiff is able to design a system which ultimately elevates skill over the chance inherent in a sweepstakes, I would hold they have complied with the law,” Griffin wrote.
How much skill?
No Limit Games, which was formed in 2020, offered games in which players could “nudge” a symbol in place for a winning combination, or play a memory game to keep their potential to win alive.
But the appellate judges found that these changes did not go far enough to separate these games from others that previous rulings determined had also violated state law.
The memory game component, Hampson wrote, was impossible to win.
“Giving players the option to complete an impossible task to receive an advantage in a game is effectively the same as having no dexterity element, because no amount of skill will make a difference in the outcome of the game,” he wrote.
Defendants in the case are the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, Robeson County, the Town of Pembroke, the State Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Public Safety and its Alcohol Law Enforcement branch.
Gavin Reardon, one of the attorneys representing No Limit Games, said the company will appeal the decision.
This story was corrected on Jan. 2, 2025 to acknowledge a change in state policy on appeals to the N.C. Supreme Court. In 2023, state lawmakers ended an automatic right to appeal a N.C. Court of Appeals decision with a written dissent.
This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "In latest video gambling ruling, NC appeals court says sweepstakes games are illegal."