Online sweepstakes parlors are loved by some and hated by many, and the Mebane City Council is among the “many.”
The council voted unanimously on Monday, March 4, to approve amendments to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that restrict “video gaming arcades,” also known as online sweepstakes businesses, which have long skirted the state’s strict gambling laws.
These amendments:
- Ban such businesses from existing within 1,500 feet of a residence, school, church or other place of worship, community center, community college, community recreational facility, or another sweepstakes business.
- Restrict the hours of operation to between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
- Prohibit flashing lights or fluttering devices used to attract attention.
Two sweepstakes businesses currently within Mebane’s city limits will be grandfathered into the revised ordinance. The hope is that the amendments will prevent new businesses, which have been shown to attract crime, from setting up shop in the city.
Alamance News Publisher Tom Boney had a lengthy back-and-forth with City Attorney Lawson Brown over the legality of sweepstakes businesses as a whole, citing the Burlington Police Department’s October 2018 crackdown that forced 30 such businesses to close.
Brown explained that as long as the games require some level of thought or dexterity, they’re not considered “games of chance,” and are therefore legal in North Carolina. Many of these arcades require players to perform a task, such as stopping a clock at a certain time, to win the full prize amount, making them games of skill.
Burlington’s crackdown, Brown continued, resulted from a months-long investigation that found sweepstakes parlors within the city contained illegal games of chance and therefore violated state law.
However, two companies have sued Burlington and Police Chief Jeffrey Smythe, claiming they misinterpreted the state’s gambling law to drive them out of business.
Boney then asked whether Mebane’s current sweepstakes businesses were following the law, and Brown responded, “Without an investigation, I couldn’t tell you.”
Until they’re found to be in violation of the law, said Cy Stober, the city’s development director, Mebane can’t outright forbid them, which is why the city revised the UDO in the first place. They are attempting to manage a complex situation.
“Getting back to Land Use 101, you cannot prohibit someone’s constitutional rights if they’re pursuing their dream,” Stober said. “If their dream is to open a video gaming arcade, you have to accommodate them to a reasonable degree. We believe that the regulations proposed tonight are reasonable, yet will limit those facilities to a few select areas of the community, just like they would limit an adult establishment to a few select areas of Mebane. … A prohibition would be a violation of a property owner’s constitutional rights.”
Council member Tim Bradley reassured Boney that they have done as much as legally possible to keep these businesses out of the city, but their efforts are hindered by the companies’ ability to exploit legal loopholes.
“The way the law is written, it’s very squirrely,” Bradley said. “If you have machines that require dexterity or thought rather than simply pulling the pin and then 7-7-7 comes up and you win, then they are legal, and they’re very difficult to remove. I think, back to the question I asked a while ago — ‘Have we taken this as far as we can that would be defensible in a court of law?’ — I think … we have. I think if they come back to Burlington under the guidelines of machines of thought or dexterity, [Burlington] won’t be able to stop them, either.”
The council agreed that if the lawsuits filed against Burlington end in the city’s favor, staff should amend the UDO accordingly. For now, they have done what they can.
