Convenience Store Owners Sue State Over Video Poker Machine Profits

Kelly Burke is the lawyer representing more than 100 store owners suing the state. He says his clients have no problem with those parts of the law. They do have a problem, says Burke, with the portion of the law that mandates that store owners split their net profits evenly with the companies that lease them the machines. According to Burke, “What the state did, is they said, ‘In order to do business with us,’ i.e., the Georgia Lottery, ‘convenience store operators, you have to agree to give machine owners half the money.’ Well why?” 

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says the mandated contract terms are unusual. “I can’t think of another situation where the legislature has stepped in and tried to determine the amount of profit an individual business or group of businesses can make off a legal commercial enterprise,” said Pate. 

State Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville), who sponsored the bill, does not expect the lawsuit to get far. “I didn’t have a single negative comment during the crafting and during presentation of the bill. It was discussed at great length,” Miller told WABE. “And the convenience store folks were happy with it, the operators were happy with it, and we moved forward.”

A lobbying group for machine owners and three individuals who have financial interest in companies that lease machines to the stores contributed more than $8500 to Senator Miller’s re-election campaign in 2012. Miller told WABE he was not aware of the figure and that the individual donors are long-time local supporters.

The store owners want a Fulton County judge to declare the law unconstitutional. The Georgia Attorney General’s office said late last week that it had no comment on the lawsuit.