North Carolina Okays Casino Game Night Bill

For some time now, a bill allowing non-profit organizations to host fundraising events featuring casino-style games and alcohol has been going through legislative scrutiny. Fortunately, the state’s Senate approved an amended version of the Game Night bill on about a fortnight ago (on April 18) on a 32-5 vote after which the bill went back to the House for concurrence on the changes. Initially, the measure was passed by a 93-17 vote – that was a month ago. The only hurdle, as pointed out by State Rep. Jamie Boles, would be the final step of the bill – the state representative is the sponsor of the bill and the chairman of the House Beverage Control Committee.

Prior to being passed by the House through the aforementioned vote, the bill was altered to require the game night vendors to obtain permits then register their gaming equipment with the Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol Beverage branch. In addition to that, another amendment sought to have cash prizes scraped from the game nights. There were also other changes that were made by two more Senate committees.

The bill is quite vital to the state of North Carolina as it is needed to clarify a law that will allow non-profit organizations to host casino or game night fundraisers. As it stands, about 500 of these game nights are conducted every year in the state – the only difference is that these ones are all illegal. Well, until now.

Non-profits will now be able to legally host up to four games nights every year for which they would be required to obtain a permit and pay a $100 fee.

Governor Roy Cooper Signs the Bill into Law

After passing both Houses, the bill landed on the governor’s desk where it was also approved. Initially, there were a few concerns pertaining to how the governor would decide on the bill. Governor Cooper vetoed a similar bill back in 2017 citing that while he was not opposed to “legitimate nonprofits holding an occasional ‘game night’ to help with donations to worthy causes”, there was a possibility that the bill was going to have “unintended consequences” and “could give video poker a new way to infiltrate our communities, allowing the industry to masquerade as charity”.

This time, it seems that all of the governor’s concerns were addressed and the lawmakers were able to convince him that this actually the case. The supporters of the bill defining argument was that the previous ban on the events was rather uneven. It was therefore much more reasonable to allow the non-profits, trade associations and some employers to hold the charity game nights.