Created: 2/28/2003 3:32:59 PM 
ATLANTA (AP) -- Video poker machines may be headed back to Georgia. A bipartisan group of House members introduced a bill yesterday to undo the video poker ban passed two years ago.
Gambling would still be illegal, but the measure would allow people to play the machines for prizes up to five dollars. Video machines that allow games of chance such as poker, blackjack or keno have been contraband in Georgia since 2001. If successful, the House bill would in many ways dismantle the anti-video poker actions of the Legislature.
Former Governor Roy Barnes joined with antigambling conservatives two years ago to push for an all-out ban on the machines. Supporters said some video poker operations were becoming gambling dens, and that it was too expensive for law enforcement to figure out who was breaking the law and dishing out cash awards. Barnes called the machines a "cancer" and a "scourge" that needed to be run out of state.
But times have changed. Barnes was defeated for re-election, and the state now faces a budget shortfall of $620 million. Several years ago, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation report estimated there were between 15-thousand and 20,385 video poker machines in Georgia, accounting for annual gross proceeds of more than one billion dollars. Some lawmakers want to bring back the machines and tax them.
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