RFP Staff
♦ In late May of this year, Rowan County Sheriff Kevin Auten sent cease and desist letters to four area sweepstakes cafes, threatening to criminally charge those operating sweepstakes pursuant to last year’s State legislation which closed all legal “loop holes” in prior law. All four who received cease and desist letters from Sheriff Auten have complied.
As of yesterday, the Rowan Free Press discovered that the only locations in Rowan County where this form of illegal gambling is still going on, is in the City of Salisbury. These gambling internet cafes prey on compulsive gamblers and the poor who are in denial about “the house always wins” in habitual gambling. Families are shredded, homes are lost, and marriages go down the drain because of compulsive gambling. Internet Sweepstakes Cafes, with their now illegal operations, need not be allowed to remain open. The State law says they must be shut down.
Is the proliferation of internet gaming establishments in Salisbury being done out of consideration of the high privilege license fees they add to city coffers? Or is it being allowed as a courtesy to the landlords of the commercial properties those establishments are renting in the City of Salisbury? Is there a payoff involved? City Hall becomes complicit in violating state law by looking the other way and not padlocking these illegal operations fattening itself in plain view.
The RFP wonders if a local law enforcement agency is derelict in its enforcement of these laws, at what point the State will take notice, and send in their own agents to clean up this illegal activity? We intend to ask State law enforcement about the non-enforcement courtesy to illegal gaming establishments in Salisbury. We will keep our readers posted on their answers.
