Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor have taken an interest in the issue. Video poker was outlawed in South Carolina last year. Since then, law enforcement and political officials in counties near the state line have complained about a flood of the machines into Georgia. Local governments in counties near Athens, Augusta and Savannah have looked to the state for answers on how to curb the spread of the games.
State law prohibits cash payments from the games.
But senators watched a Georgia Bureau of Investigation video tape of money illegally being handed out in Catoosa County - a situation critics say is common. Three video poker bills are before the state Senate. Two of them, sponsored by Sen. Mike Beatty, R-Jefferson, would ban the games outright or give local governments the right to make their own laws. A third, sponsored by Sen. Mike Polak, D-Atlanta, would beef up laws on the machines, but keep them legal. Lawmakers spent a portion of Thursday's hearing grilling gaming industry lobbyist Les Schneider, who helped craft Mr. Polak's bill.