David is the kind of guy who gets illegal video poker operators turned in.
Around 1990, the Charlotte man played his first hand of video poker. He had beginner's luck.
"It turns out that for me, the worst thing that could happen is the big win," he said.
For nine years he chased the payoff, looking for the hot machine and a return to the initial thrill.
"You start winning, and then you start losing, and then you start chasing and then you start desperation," said David - who asked that his real name not be used.
During his gambling years, David spent between five and 24 hours every day in front of the screen.
He remembers driving to gamble with an empty gas tank. Unwilling to spend his video poker money for fuel, he would run out of gas on the way home.
Although David does not offer a dollar figure on how much he spent on video poker, he says, "What I ended up gambling before I stopped was everything I had, everything I could get, legal or illegal."
David hid his gambling from his wife by managing their finances himself. Because he was self-employed, he was able to slip away from work to gamble.
The accumulated stress of the addiction led David to his "rock bottom," and he gave up video poker - sometimes called "video crack" - after nine years.
David now attends four or five Gamblers Anonymous meetings weekly. He hasn't played video poker since 1999.
Sheriff's departments frequently are tipped off to illegal video poker operations when family members report that someone like David has spent his entire paycheck on a video poker machine.
The machines are legal. The problem is, they aren't used in legal ways, especially where payoffs are concerned.
"If the machine pays off in cash in any way, form, or fashion, it's illegal on its face," said Mike Robertson, director of the state's Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement.
Owners of machines who make illegal payoffs - sometimes in thousands of dollars - have had their machines seized throughout the state.
"It's much greater than people would ever even care to acknowledge," said Randy Jones, spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Department.
The ALE has made 179 arrests for gambling violations in recent months, and all were related to video gaming.
Local law enforcement agencies do not report how many illegal machines they have seized in addition to the state busts.
A bust in Guilford County in September 2003 led to eight arrests, including one former police chief, Gibsonville's Robert Tickle.
Tickle, who retired from the town's police force in 1991 after 15 years as chief, has been charged with two misdemeanor gambling violations and two misdemeanor video game machine violations.
Officers who conducted the investigation say Tickle handed out cash prizes to undercover agents at an establishment known as "The Hill."
The 68-year-old man, who spent his entire career in law enforcement, is scheduled to appear in court in March.
There are quite a few registered video poker machines in Lenoir County, Sheriff W.E. "Bill" Smith said. Many times complaints are made about larger payoffs than the legal payoff of $10.
"I had one person complain to me that the machines wouldn't pay him off more than $10, and that he always won more than that from the machines in the county where he lives," Smith said. "I told him he should go back and play the machines in his own county because in Lenoir County the payoffs are not to be more than $10."
Smith added that it is difficult to monitor all of the county's registered video poker machines. His officers make spot checks, he said, but unless the illegal payoffs are observed it is difficult to prosecute anyone for gambling violations.
