Court Opinion

ID: 9854723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:12:43.079525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:19.084346
License: Public Domain

*196Judge Phillips
dissenting.
G.S. 14-289, 14-290, and 14-292.1 make it a crime for anybody except certain exempt organizations to either advertise, conduct or promote gambling in any form, and permit the favored organizations to conduct and promote bingo games twice a week and lotteries or raffles once a month.
In my opinion these statutes improperly discriminate against defendant and everyone else but the exempt organizations, violate the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 19 of the North Carolina Constitution, and give the exempt organizations special privileges and emoluments in violation of Article I, § 32 of the North Carolina Constitution.
Since the exemption granted involved neither a fundamental right nor a suspect classification (at least as that term has heretofore been used, though statutes which permit prestigious organizations and their members to do with impunity what others go to jail for are more than suspect to me), the constitutional test that must be applied is whether the difference in treatment the statutes authorize has “a reasonable basis in relation to the purpose and subject matter of the legislation.” Guthrie v. Taylor, 279 N.C. 703, 714, 185 S.E. 2d 193, 201 (1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 920, 32 L.Ed. 2d 119, 92 S.Ct. 1774 (1972).
The North Carolina Supreme Court has held that “ ‘Gambling is injurious to the morals and welfare of the people, and it is not only within the scope of the state’s police power to suppress gambling in all its forms, but its duty to do so. ’ ” State v. Felton, 239 N.C. 575, 581, 80 S.E. 2d 625, 630 (1954). (Quoting 24 Am. Jur. 399, Gaming and Prize Contests, § 3; emphasis added in the Supreme Court’s opinion.) Exempting special groups from the general legislative ban against gambling cannot ameliorate the evils that gambling entails. The class of person or organization conducting a lottery is not rationally related to the need to protect people from gambling in all its forms; if lotteries injure public morals, then it makes no difference whether they are operated by the defendant or by a fraternal or religious organization. Indeed, it is utterly irrational to suppose that gambling in any form can be effectively discouraged by statutes that permit the favored few to promote and profit from it.
*197The State contends that exempting religious and charitable organizations from the gambling laws serves the desirable and legitimate legislative goal of promoting religious and charitable activities by requiring them to use the proceeds for such purposes. If these statutes in truth did that, they would perhaps violate the constitutional separation of church and state, but they only appear to do that. Though G.S. 14-292.1(d) permits exempt organizations to use lottery and bingo proceeds for “religious, charitable, civic, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes,” it also permits the monies to be used
for purchasing, construction, maintaining, operating or using equipment or land or a building or improvements thereto owned by and for the exempt organization and used for civic purposes or made available by the exempt organization for use by the general public from time to time, or to foster amateur sports competition ....
Allowing a homeowner’s association or fraternal group or any other exempt organization to use gambling proceeds to buy themselves a building and grounds as long as they have a basketball court or softball field that is occasionally open to the public no more promotes religious or charitable activity than if the defendant or any other group, or person, was permitted to do the same thing.
Too, since exempt organizations may spend most of their gambling proceeds on themselves, another baleful effect of these statutes is to create a special money-making privilege for the favored organizations. A statute may bar a person from engaging in a business “only if it is reasonably necessary to promote the public health, morals, order, safety, or general welfare.” Cheek v. City of Charlotte, 273 N.C. 293, 296, 160 S.E. 2d 18, 21 (1968). State v. Felton, supra, held that the exclusive emoluments provision of the North Carolina Constitution was violated by a law allowing a corporation to run a parimutuel system where 10% of the receipts went to the local government. Article I, § 32 of the North Carolina Constitution states: “No person or set of persons is entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in consideration of public services.” G.S. 14-292.1(d) gives special gambling privileges to exempt organizations without really requiring them to do anything for the public.
*198In my opinion the dismissal by the trial court was correct and my vote is to affirm it.