House committee advances bill to clarify when contests are skill-based; amendment tabled

A House committee gave House Bill 4,129 a favorable report after members debated an amendment intended to tighten the law's wording on when a contest is "skill"-based rather than gambling.

Representative Long introduced an amendment that would add the phrase "clearly and substantially predominates over chance" and a subsection addressing contests that use "standardized scoring or judging criteria or [that] involve elements of chance that are not clearly secondary to skill." "This really just kind of strengthens the language, on skill, predominating over chance," Long said.

The amendment prompted questions from several members who said the extra wording could create uncertainty for longstanding community events. "A few of these that we've named ... I'm not a big fisherman, but bill fishing and the bass fishing, I'm not sure how subsection B might affect those," Representative Stavrunakis said, asking whether staff could make technical revisions to reflect the committee's intent.

Representative Rutherford and others warned the amendment's additional wording might do more harm than good by inviting new interpretations of legislative intent. Rutherford said the proposed phrase "clearly and substantially" did not clarify the line between skill and chance for him and cautioned that courts could still dispute the law's meaning.

Representative Ballantyne raised a separate concern that the amendment's language could be used to argue for legalizing video poker. "Some people brought to my attention that they thought the bill the way it was written would potentially allow video poker back in our state," Ballantyne said. Long replied the amendment was intended to prevent gray areas that could be exploited by newly created games.

Members repeatedly cited a recent court decision that, they said, upended longstanding assumptions about which contests are legal in the state. Representative Stabenakis (discussion) summarized the effect: courts have found that paying a fee and winning a prize may amount to illegal gambling even when events were historically treated as games of skill. The case was described in committee as Ascent Video Gaming Machine v. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division; members said the court's opinion raised questions about arcade games, fair prizes and other activities.

After discussion, Long moved to table his amendment "with the understanding that I might work on it at the time it comes to the floor," he said. The committee approved tabling the amendment by voice vote.

The committee then took a roll-call vote on House Bill 4,129. The recorded vote was 17-0 in favor; the clerk announced "A vote of 17 to 0, the committee gives House Bill 4,129 a favorable report." The committee therefore advanced the bill out of committee; proponents said the bill aims to clarify that widely held, non-card contests and community events remain legal. Members asked the bill sponsor and staff to refine language before floor consideration to avoid unintentionally sweeping in events such as fishing tournaments or creating openings for prohibited games.

Votes at a glance - Tabling of Representative Long's amendment: motion to table moved by Representative Long; passed by voice vote (no recorded tally provided). - House Bill 4,129: roll-call vote 17-0 in favor; committee gave the bill a favorable report.

What remained unresolved Members asked staff and the bill author to revise and clarify the amendment language before the bill reaches the floor. Several speakers asked that the bill explicitly exclude card-based games and that any additional language not impede community events that rely on contests and entry fees.

(Committee comments and quotes are drawn from the committee's continuation meeting record.)