A video poker ban has been upheld in Catawba County in the state of North Carolina. The North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the ban on video poker that is a state law, which bans video poker machines throughout the state. The ruling to uphold the ban was unanimous. The court also ruled that the only place the video poker machines can be operated are by the Cherokee Indians at their Smokey Mountains casino. The only reason the case went to the Court of Appeals is because a Superior Court Judge sided with a gaming company, which could have legalized video poker throughout the entire state of North Carolina.

Judge Robert C. Hunter wrote the following about the Cherokee Indians no longer having exclusive video poker rights in his ruling for Judges Martha Geer and Linda Stephens:

“The tribe would no longer have preferential gaming rights, but instead would be in competition with other gaming enterprises. They don’t have the recourse of an appeal. They can only ask the Supreme Court to hear it, and it would be unlikely that they would.”

There are some businesses in the state of North Carolina, especially in Catawba County, that operate video poker machines that will have until the end of the calendar year to get rid of the machines or else they will be fined for operating the illegal machines. Police officers will be on patrol beginning with the first week in January checking in on the businesses that operate video poker machines to make sure that the machines are gone.