SLED to investigate new sweepstakes game

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000 | 4:07 a.m.

Players put money into machines to time on the Internet. But they also can choose to play a game where a computer picks numbers and winnings are paid back to them. The machines are in at least two Spartanburg stores.

State Rep. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, said that sounds like video gambling and has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate.

"You're gambling at a video terminal at a store. I thought that was what we banned," Hawkins said.

The games are no different than grocery store or fast food giveaways where consumers buy something, then have a chance at winning a prize, said Wallace Cheves, a vice president of First Link, a Greenville company that owns the machines.

First Link sells 100 minutes of Internet time for $20. Buyers then get a chance to play the Toucheasy Keno video game. "They don't challenge McDonald's or Ingles. Why would they challenge us?" he asked.

First Link, which has been in business a little more than a year, is testing the machines in 10 different places in Spartanburg, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Rock Hill, Cheves said.

The kiosks are meant to give people on the go a chance to check their e-mail or surf the Net, Cheves said. Anyone buying the card can use the Internet minutes whether they win the sweepstakes and cash out or not.

"It's like when you win something when you buy a Coke. You keep the Coke, you keep the Internet time," Cheves said.

A reporter from the (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal watched a man play the game Saturday.

The player put a $20 bill into the machine and got a card in return. Once the man swiped the card, he entered his name, address, phone number and a secret code. He then was given a choice to play the sweepstakes or surf the Internet. He selected the sweepstakes.

The computer selected the player's numbers, then another set of numbers tumbled down the right side of the screen. The man won $40.

The player swiped his card again, and the machine pumped out eight $5 bills.

Spartanburg County sheriff's deputies also have asked SLED agents to check the machines, said Lt. Ron Gahagan.

"We obviously can't run down there and seize the machines now. We need to know if they're illegal," Gahagan said.

If SLED determines the machines are legal, Hawkins said he plans to introduce a bill to close what he termed a loophole.

"It would be a great injustice if the video gambling business were to be allowed to make a mockery of the people of this state by devising some new technology designed to skirt the law," Hawkins wrote to SLED.

Cheves said he and partner Robert Bishop were not breaking any law.

"We have nothing to hide here," he said. "All we're doing is selling Internet access, and the sweepstakes is our promotional item to get people interested in it."