Senate Bill 1542, S.L 2000-151 was enacted into law by the 2000 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly and places tight restrictions on the possession, use and operation of video gaming machines.

For a video gaming machine to be legal, it must meet 3 requirements. It must be a coin-operated machine that is operated and played for amusement, that involves the use of skill or dexterity to solve problems or tasks or to make varying scores or tallies, and it must limit to eight the number of accumulated credits or replays that may be played at one time, and the machine may award free replays or paper coupons that may be exchanged for prizes or merchandise as long as the value of the prizes or merchandise does not exceed $10.00. There are to be no cash payouts on any machines.

Video gaming machines can no longer be brought into North Carolina, but machines already in North Carolina are allowed to stay as long as they: 1. were lawfully in operation and available for play, in North Carolina on or before June 30, 2000; and 2. were listed in North Carolina by January 31, 2000 for ad valorem property taxation for the 2000-2001 tax year. Unless the video gaming machine was both lawfully in operation and available for play in North Carolina on or before June 30, 2000 and was listed in North Carolina by January 31, 2000 for ad valorem property taxes, it is "unlawful for any person to operate, allow to be operated, place into operation, or keep in that person's possession for the purpose of operation" the video gaming machine.

It is unlawful to possess more than three video gaming machines at one location. Possession of five or more machines at one location is a Class G felony.

Video gaming machines cannot be operated between the hours of 2:00 am Sunday morning through 7:00 am Monday morning.

All video gaming machines available for operation shall be in "plain view of person's visiting the premises."

Registration

By October 1, 2000, the owner of each video gaming machine must register the machine with the Sheriff of the county in which the machine was located, and provide certain information, to include the location of each machine.

Each time a video gaming machine is moved to another location, the owner must re-register it with the Sheriff BEFORE it is placed into operation at the new location.

Every registered machine should have an orange registration sticker on it. This verifies that the Video Gaming Machine Registration was issued pursuant to NCGS 14-306.1 (e).

You can anonymously report machines that are paying off by calling 704-634-5071, and speaking with an investigator or, leaving a voice mail message. You do not have to leave your name or phone number unless you wish to be called back.