Georgia Retailers File Suit Against State for Video Poker Profit Sharing

The convenience stores' owners claim a new law eats into their proceeds from video poker machines.

November 06, 2013

ATLANTA – More than 100 convenience store owners have joined together to sue Georgia over video poker machine profits, WABE-FM reports. The lawsuit is asking a county judge to deem the law “unconstitutional.”

The convenience stores don’t have a problem with registering with the state if they have video poker machines or giving the state lottery some of the profit from the machines, said Kelly Burke, an attorney for the group. The problem is the new state law requiring retailers to share net profits 50/50 with the businesses providing the machines.

“What the state did, is they said, ‘In order to do business with us,’ i.e., the Georgia Lottery, ‘convenience store operators, you have to agree to give machine owners half the money.’ Well why?” asked Burke.

Legal analyst Page Pate said such terms are not the norm. “I can’t think of another situation where the legislature has stepped in and tried to determine the amount of profit an individual business or group of businesses can make off a legal commercial enterprise,” Pate told WABE.

The state senator who pushed the bill dismissed the lawsuit’s threat. “I didn’t have a single negative comment during the crafting and during presentation of the bill. It was discussed at great length,” said State Sen. Butch Miller. “And the convenience store folks were happy with it, the operators were happy with it and we moved forward.”

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