Jasper County video gambling operator continues fight against statewide ban

Wednesday, July 5, 2000 | 8:59 a.m.

A Circuit Court judge granted Ingram an injunction Friday afternoon, protecting his 25 gambling businesses in Beaufort and Jasper counties for 10 days. But the high court stepped in at Attorney General Charlie Condon's urging and blocked the lower court's order two hours before the machines were banned at midnight.

Ingram has until Wednesday morning to ask the justices to lift their order and allow him to reopen his businesses and take his lawsuit back to the Circuit Court.

"I will respond so I can let the citizens of the state know how the attorney general and Supreme Court are acting," Ingram said. "I disagree with the way they were doing it."

"I feel the laws preventing video poker are unconstitutional and I will challenge Condon until a higher court tells me the laws are constitutional," Ingram said.

"The poker industry is doing nothing but spending the taxpayers' money to delay the inevitable end of video gambling in South Carolina," Condon said Monday. "The Legislature has spoken loudly and clearly that video gambling should get out of this state immediately."

But Ingram says he's not giving up.

"If he doesn't want me to spend the taxpayers' money, he has to change the constitution," Ingram said. "I thought Condon was supposed to protect our constitutional rights and now he's telling me I have none."