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Swept up in the allure of online gamesEDEN, Aug 02, 2009 (News & Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- I'll admit that I'd never noticed the burgeoning video sweepstakes business until one moved into the building that was formerly home to Grogan's. The florist, gift and garden center on Kings Highway was in business in Eden for more than 35 years before closing in 2006. Earlier this summer, when I saw lights on in Grogan's and cars back in the parking lot, my hopes were high. Several signs popped up that let me know the business was somehow Internet-related. Computer sales, maybe? Repairs? An Internet cafe? It left me and others wondering what business had moved into the place that had long been the pride of Eden's retail landscape. But after driving by slowly and noticing another sign that read "sweepstakes," I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't the kind of sweepstakes in which the prize van pulls up to your door and people hop out with a gigantic check. I decided I'd go in and see what the sweepstakes was all about. From the outside, it was the old Grogan's, minus pots full of petunias and baskets of ferns on the porch. But step inside the place where people used to buy Baldwin brass, ornaments for their Christmas trees, sweet-smelling lotions, wine and chocolates, and it has all changed. Signs on the door and the walls prohibit profanity and alcohol and state that you must be 18 to enter. There's a glassed-in booth in the center. That's the place where you purchase Internet time. On this day, July 28, there were no machines. Howard Tate, who runs the business in the building owned by Tinker Rush, sat at a folding table with some papers and a calculator in an almost empty room. He was temporarily closed, waiting for newer machines to be delivered. Normally it's open from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week. Tate, who's better known for the restaurants he has opened around town, didn't want to be interviewed, but he directed me across the street, just yards away, where a sign announced yet another place where people can play sweepstakes. Mike Dougherty, Eden's business developer, says there are at least five or six such places in the city, enough so that one resident asked him if it's becoming a "little Vegas." "The city did not recruit or promote them," Dougherty says. "They're just springing up." I crossed the street to 350 B Kings Highway to the place Tate directed me. A sign above the door reads "Eden Business Center." The only employee working at the time, Dot Lankford, told me it's owned by Roger Moore, who operates a similar business in Madison. At the centers, you can send a fax, make a copy, use the Internet or play the video sweepstakes games. Tables with computer monitors line the walls -- more than 35 terminals, by my count. It was the middle of a weekday afternoon, and 23 people were seated at monitors. By the time I left, 28 people were at the machines or standing in line to purchase Internet time. At the back was a reception window similar to what you'd see in a doctor's office. I went to the window where Lankford helped me. I passed on the free $10 bonus given to new users and bought $1 worth of minutes. You must show a driver's license or Social Security card. Lankford keyed in my driver's license number and sent me to a machine with my "password." She was going to give me a quick tutorial during a lull in business, but there wasn't one. At my terminal, it was my choice to do with my time as I pleased. I could surf the Internet, make a phone call, write a document or play an assortment of games, including sweepstakes games. A look at the screens around me showed that everyone at that particular time was there for the games. But what to play? I narrowed it down to "Lucky Shamrocks" or "Smokin' 7s." I went with the 7s. And guess what? Before I even started, my $1 investment was doubled. Turns out that at the Eden Business Center, you get $1 worth of time for free every day you play. I already felt like a winner. The game was like a slot machine without the arm to pull. With a computer click, the slots tumble and line up. It happens in a matter of seconds, which is a good thing because my time was fast disappearing. A man I spoke with, who wouldn't give me his name, told me he enjoys playing because it's great entertainment. Some people bowl or go to movies, he says. He likes playing games of chance. And he likes being able to do it in a place that's not a bar or a convenience store, where you'd typically expect to find the machines. In minutes, I'd used my $2, but hey -- I'd won 55 cents. I walked up to the window to "cash out" only to find out that they don't pay out for wins less than a dollar. But when I come back tomorrow, Lankford told me, I'll be up $1.55. Don't ask me why, but I felt a little thrilled by that. Math was never my strong suit. When I left, the parking lot was overflowing and people were starting to park in a vacant lot next door. And I'm left doing what our state legislators are doing: grappling with the pros and cons of the gaming issue. When video poker was banned in North Carolina in 2006, the sweepstakes style of gaming, which does not resemble poker, took its place. The games are connected to a remote server. In December 2008, Senate Bill 180 went into effect to stem video sweepstakes machines . But no one wanted to restrict those scratch-and-win games offered by fast food places and other businesses. That opened a loophole for server-based sweepstakes games continued with a few modifications. Now, there are some elected officials in the state who believe the games should be expanded, taxed and regulated. They want to remove the ban on video poker. It could be a way to fill the state's empty coffers. North Carolina isn't the only state looking at the issue. Google "sweepstakes games," and you'll read about many states that are looking at them as a source of revenue in these cash-strapped times. After my visit, it does appear to be a lucrative enterprise. But I can't help wishing the lucrative enterprise still involved selling pansies, mums, candlesticks, a nice Cabernet and maybe some Moravian cookies. Contact Myla Barnhardt at 627-1781, Ext. 116 or [email protected] To see more of the News & Record or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.news-record.com. Copyright (c) 2009, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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