By M.H. Cavanaugh
Christian Action League
November 21, 2015
Last Friday, November 13th, the Lenoir County District Attorney sent a directive to sweepstakes cafes to close their doors within 30 days.
According to Kinston.com, by Monday of this week, café owners and their employees made an appeal to Lenoir County Commissioners to do something to save their jobs. Commissioners, however, said they would do nothing to stand in the way of the orders by the district attorney’s office or the courts.
Café owners complained bitterly to commissioners and sometimes with tears that they felt their businesses were being unfairly targeted.
Kinston.com says that several people who spoke at the commissioners meeting said they were the sole income earner in their household and losing their jobs was tough enough, but losing them during the holiday season was much worse.
Commissioner J. Mac Daughtry took to Facebook after the meeting and said listening to the owners of the sweepstakes cafes was “heartbreaking” for him. He said that as he heard the many sad stories of sweepstakes owners shutting down their operations just before Christmas, he felt like he was living out a “Charles Dickens, The Christmas Carol.”
“Yes they violated the law, yes they knew they were in violation, but what would it have hurt after this period of unenforcement to have allowed them a 60-day window to cease and desist?” wrote Daughtry.
But Dr. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said the sweepstakes ban was passed in 2007, tweaked in 2010, all lower court rulings against the ban were overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2013. The state’s highest court has refused to take up any further appeals, and the North Carolina General Assembly has declined to take up legislation to make the games legal again.
“I think the handwriting has been on the wall for quite some time. Sweepstakes owners have had plenty of time – blaming anyone but themselves for their failure to look for alternative employment is no one’s fault but their own,” said Dr. Creech. “While we should have some sympathy for their plight, we should be equally concerned for the severe deprivations created for the many folks addicted to sweepstakes gaming,” he said.
In other news about gambling in the Tar Heel state, Tom Campbell, executive producer and moderator of NC Spin, wrote a column last week titled, A Gamble North Carolina Shouldn’t Risk.
In the article, Campbell points out the growing popularity of online fantasy sports games.
“Tune in any sports event and chances are good you are going to hear repeated ads from FanDuel and DraftKings promising you can win millions of dollars by going online and playing their ‘games’,” writes Campbell.
“Fantasy sports have become a way of life to many, choosing teams of players and pitting these teams against friends, family or online leagues. What started out as clean sporting fun has ended up as widespread online gambling. Each week a FanDuel or DraftKings participant goes online and selects players for that week, betting that his fantasy team will outperform others and win big dollars. You can slice and dice this any way you want, but it is nothing less than gambling,” argues Campbell.
Campbell further notes the ways this new form of gambling can corrupt both collegiate and professional sports. He adds that concerns about potential problems have prompted seven states, including Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington to make online sporting games illegal. The Nevada Gaming Commission has banned fantasy sports, and New York’s Attorney General has ordered them to cease and desist.
“North Carolina passed laws outlawing video sweepstakes games because of their potential for harm, but so far our state has been silent regarding FanDuel and DraftKings. We may not prevent them from advertising during sporting events, but we don’t have to let them operate here…We think it is time for our regulators and our lawmakers to join other states in declaring these are thinly veiled gambling operations and outlaw them,” concludes Campbell.
Dr. Creech said he appreciated Campbell drawing attention to the problem. “The Christian Action League joins him in his assessment of the situation, and we will be calling lobbying lawmakers to act,” he added.