Internet sweepstakes businesses have been cropping up around Johnston County in the past year or so, but most towns have little power to regulate them since they lack rules governing the facilities.
Four Oaks commissioners on Monday rejected an application for an Internet sweepstakes business, making it one of the first area towns to say no to the rapidly growing industry that some liken to gambling.
Raleigh businessman Sherwood Newkirk had hoped to open an Internet sweepstakes business in the Peachtree Center shopping center on U.S. 301 South. But commissioners said they couldn’t support such a venture anywhere in town.
“It was the board’s thought that we’d prefer to have some other type of business rather than internet gambling,” Mayor Linwood Parker said.
Parker said the board was also hesitent because the N.C. General Assembly is considering legislation that could ban sweepstakes parlors or tax them heavily. He says they told Newkirk he could apply again after the state decides how to handle it. Also, Parker said, approving Newkirk’s application would open the floodgates to more sweepstakes operations.
In next week's Herald, read more about the decision, the town's legal grounds for making it and what other towns are doing about Internet sweepstakes.
