The former chief of South Carolina's law enforcement division supports the legality of new video poker machines that authorities have questioned since last year, according to an article from the Associated Press.
Reggie Lloyd, the former SLED leader responsible for seizing the games from convenience stores or bars, said new alterations make the games less like poker and more like a lottery sweepstakes.
But across South Carolina, judges are divided. A judge in Horry County recently ruled one of the gaming machines illegal, while another judge in Greenville County approved of one of the sweepstakes games.
In September, current SLED Chief Mark Keel said he would focus on eliminating video gaming across the state, but now says he needs judges to come to an agreement about the legality of the games before dedicating resources to their destruction.
Lawmakers in Columbia are also addressing the issue, though only tangentially. Bills in both the Senate and the House seek to clarify that laws allowing bingo and raffle contests do not provide loopholes for video gaming.
James Sanderson
8:27 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I really think that SLED and the local and state goverment have much bigger fish to fry than to waste OUR TAX DOLLARS on such a PETTY thing this is to me like a regime telling the public how they can spend there money if people want to put there money in these machines then so be it