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North Carolina is another state in the midst of debates over gambling. The difference here though is that their arguments have come out of the blue, unlike other legislation. The legislative session-goers were surprised with a last-minute bill that would open the door to blackjack, poker and other table games to enter the Cherokee-owned casinos in the state. The interesting thing is that many legislators were blindsided by the proposal as they had never heard of the potential. Right now the state has numerous machine-run table games, but not dealer-run games. This is what is now being proposed for the set of Indian-owned locations. It is interesting to some legislators that this bill is being thrown in now at the end of the session. Officials are tired already of deliberating over the 300+ bills on the table. They have been sorting through them all consistently and now may not be the best time to come up with a completely new legislation to debate out. Many of them are questioning the timing citing it as a tactic to rush gambling initiatives through.
The move is being called into question as coming with an ulterior motive. The Governor Perdue administration is presenting the issue as a means of bringing more money into the state. The legislature is going to come back in later in July of this year to see if they can bring new expansion to the casinos. If they can, it will mean more jobs, more money and more of a benefit overall to the market. Whether or not legislators agree in a majority though has yet to be seen. This is something that has been sharply debated over the past few months and now it is going to continue. Though there is a timeframe on it, it isn’t something that is going to keep on working without some resolution—even if that means putting the decision on hold for a future time and pushing out off the table right now.