Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format
Current Status Bill Number:View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.5 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:Senate Introduced Date:19990112 Primary Sponsor:Land All Sponsors:Land, Passailaigue, Elliott, Courtney, Glover Drafted Document Number:l:\s-res\jcl\001game.kad.doc Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Finance Committee 06 SF Subject:Video poker payouts, voters to decide by referendum, Elections, Gambling, Coin-operated devices History Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved ______ ________ ______________________________________ _______ ____________ Senate 19990112 Introduced, read first time, 06 SF referred to Committee Senate 19981118 Prefiled, referred to Committee 06 SF Versions of This Bill
TO REQUIRE A STATEWIDE REFERENDUM AT THE TIME OF THE 2000 GENERAL ELECTION TO ASCERTAIN WHETHER VIDEO GAME MACHINE PAYOUTS WILL CONTINUE TO BE ALLOWED IN THE STATE AFTER DECEMBER 31, 2000; AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE REPEAL OF PROVISIONS OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE AUTHORIZING VIDEO GAME MACHINE PAYOUTS AND REGULATING VIDEO GAME MACHINES, IF THE STATE ELECTION COMMISSION CERTIFIES THAT A MAJORITY OF THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS VOTING IN THE REFERENDUM VOTED "NO".
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 2. A. A statewide referendum must be conducted at the time of the general election in 2000 to ascertain whether or not video game machine payouts will continue to be allowed in this State. The State Election Commission must place the exact question contained in subsection B of this section on the referendum ballot. The state election laws shall apply to the referendum, mutatis mutandis. The State Board of Canvassers shall publish the results of the referendum and certify them to the Secretary of State, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Code Commissioner.
B. The question put before the qualified electors in the referendum shall read:
"Shall cash payoffs for credits earned on video game machines continue to be allowed after December 31, 2000?
Those voting in favor of the question shall deposit a ballot with a check or cross mark in the square after the word 'Yes', and those voting against the question shall deposit a ballot with a check for cross mark in the square after the word 'No'."
SECTION 3. Section 12-21-2710 of the 1976 Code, as amended by Act 155 of 1997, is further amended to read:
"Section 12-21-2710. It is unlawful for any person to keep on his premises or operate or permit to be kept on his premises or operated within this State any vending or slot machine, or any video game machine with a free play feature operated by a slot in which is deposited a coin or thing of value, or other device operated by a slot in which is deposited a coin or thing of value for the play of poker, blackjack, keno, lotto, bingo, or craps, or any machine or device licensed pursuant to Section 12-21-2720 and used for gambling or any punch board, pull board, or other device pertaining to games of chance of whatever name or kind, including those machines, boards, or other devices that display different pictures, words, or symbols, at different plays or different numbers, whether in words or figures or, which deposit tokens or coins at regular intervals or in varying numbers to the player or in the machine, but the provisions of this section do not extend to coin-operated nonpayout pin tables, in-line pin games, and video games with free play feature which meet the technical requirements provided for in Section 12-21-2782 and Section 12-21-2783, or to automatic weighing, measuring, musical, and vending machines which are constructed as to give a certain uniform and fair return in value for each coin deposited and in which there is no element of chance.
Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned for a period of not more than one year, or both."
SECTION 4. Section 12-21-2712 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 12-21-2712. Any vending or slot machine, punch board, or other device pertaining to games of chance prohibited by Section 12-21-2710 must be seized by any officer of the law law enforcement officer and at once taken before any magistrate of the county in which the machine, board, or device is seized who shall immediately examine it, and if he is satisfied that it is in violation of Section 12-21-2710 or any other law of this State, he shall direct that it be immediately destroyed."
SECTION 5. (A) Section 12-21-2720(A)(3) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Section 148, Act 181 of 1993, is further amended to read:
"(3) a machine of the nonpayout type, or in-line pin game, or video game with free play feature operated by a slot in which is deposited a coin or thing of value except machines of the nonpayout pin table type with levers or `flippers' operated by the player by which the course of the balls may be altered or changed."
(B) Section 12-21-2720(C) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 145 of 1995, is further amended to read:
"(C) The owner or operator of any coin-operated device which is exempt from Section 16-19-60 and is subject to licensing under Section 12-21-2720(A)(3) and which has multi-player stations, shall purchase a separate license for each such station and any such multi-player station counts as a machine when determining the number of machines authorized for licensure under Section 12-21-2804(A)."
(C) Section 12-21-2720 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 155 of 1997, if further amended by deleting subsections (E) and (F), which read:
"(E) The department shall not issue a license for the operation of a video game with a free play feature which is located or intended to be located on a watercraft or vessel plying the territorial waters of this State.
(F) Four hundred dollars of the four thousand dollar license fee imposed in subsection (A) may be retained by the department and expended in budgeted operations for the implementation and ongoing operation of the monitoring system required by law or in other programs and services as the director may determine necessary and appropriate."
SECTION 6. Section 12-21-2726 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 164 of 1993, is further amended to read:
"Section 12-21-2726. Every person who maintains for use or permits the use of, on a place or premises occupied by him, a machine subject to the license imposed by this article by way of proof of licensing must have a current license displayed conspicuously on the front of the machine. Except for the provisions of Sections 12-21-2774 and 12-21-2776, each machine licensed pursuant to this section must be operated in a stand-alone fashion and may not be linked in any way to another coin-operated machine or device."
SECTION 7. Section 12-54-40 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 155 of 1997, is further amended by deleting subsection (g) which reads:
"(g) A machine owner or distributor, as defined in Article 20, Chapter 21 of this title, who allows or causes a machine to be operated without a metering device, or who wilfully places a machine on location or who wilfully allows or causes a machine to be operated with a metering device that does not accurately record the information required under Article 20, Chapter 21 of this title is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than ten years, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, and in addition may be fined not more than twenty-five thousand dollars."
SECTION 8. Section 16-19-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 16-19-40. If any person shall play at any tavern, inn, store for the retailing of spirituous liquors or in any house used as a place of gaming, barn, kitchen, stable or other outhouse, street, highway, open wood, race field or open place at (a) any game with cards or dice, (b) any gaming table, commonly called A, B, C, or E, O, or any gaming table known or distinguished by any other letters or by any figures, (c) any roley-poley table, (d) rouge et noir, (e) any faro bank or (f) any other table or bank of the same or the like kind under any denomination whatsoever or (g) any machine or device licensed pursuant to Section 12-21-2720 and used for gambling purposes, except the games of billiards, bowls, backgammon, chess, draughts or whist when there is no betting on any such game of billiards, bowls, backgammon, chess, draughts or whist or shall bet on the sides or hands of such as do game, upon being convicted thereof, before any magistrate, shall be imprisoned for a period of not over thirty days or shall suffer a fine of fined not over one hundred dollars, and every person so keeping such tavern, inn, retail store, public place or house used as a place for gaming or such other house shall, upon being convicted thereof, upon indictment, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding twelve months and forfeit a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, for each and every offense."
SECTION 9. Section 16-19-50 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 16-19-50. Any person who shall set up, keep or use any (a) gaming table, commonly called A, B, C, or E, O, or any gaming table known or distinguished by any other letters or by any figures, (b) roley-poley table, (c) table to play at rouge et noir, (d) faro bank or (e) any other gaming table or bank of the like kind or of any other kind for the purpose of gaming, or (f) any machine or device licensed pursuant to Section 12-21-2720 and used for gambling purposes except the games of billiards, bowls, chess, draughts and backgammon, upon being convicted thereof, upon indictment, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars and not less than two hundred dollars."
SECTION 10. Sections 12-21-2703 and 16-19-60 and Article 20, Chapter 21 of Title 12, all of the 1976 Code, are repealed.
SECTION 11. All proceedings pending and all rights and liabilities existing, acquired, or incurred at the time this act takes effect are saved.
SECTION 12. If any section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this act is for any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid, such holding shall not affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act, the General Assembly hereby declaring that it would have passed this act, and each and every section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words hereof may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.
SECTION 13. (A) Parts I and III of this act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
(B) Part II is effective January 1, 2001, only if the State Election Commission certifies, as provided in Section 2.A., that a majority of the qualified electors voting in the referendum voted "no". After the effective date of Part II of this act, the South Carolina Department of Revenue, upon application, shall issue pro rate refunds of license fees on machines licensed pursuant to Section 12-21-2720(A)(3) as of December 31, 2000.
SECTION 14. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
This web page was last updated on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:03 A.M.