IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
2022-NCSC-1
No. 363A14-4
Filed 11 February 2022 GIFT SURPLUS, LLC, and SANDHILL AMUSEMENTS, INC., Plaintiffs, v.
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ex rel. ROY COOPER, GOVERNOR, in his official capacity, BRANCH HEAD OF THE ALCOHOL LAW ENFORCEMENT BRANCH OF THE STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, MARK J. SENTER, in his official capacity, SECRETARY OF THE NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, ERIK A. HOOKS, in his official capacity, and DIRECTOR OF THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, BOB SCHURMEIER, in his official capacity.
On discretionary review pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-31 of a unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals, 268 N.C. App. 1 (2019), reversing an order entered on 2 February 2018 by Judge Ebern T. Watson III, in the Superior Court, Onslow County. Heard in the Supreme Court on 23 March 2021.
Fox Rothschild LLP, by Elizabeth Brooks Scherer, Troy D. Shelton and Kip D. Nelson; Hyler & Agan PLLC, by George B. Hyler, Jr.; and Grace, Tisdale, Clifton, P.A., by Michael A. Grace for plaintiff-appellants.
Joshua Stein, Attorney General, by James W. Doggett, Deputy Solicitor General, Olga Vysotskaya de Brito, Special Deputy Attorney General, and Ryan Y. Park, Solicitor General, for the State.
Edmond W. Caldwell, Jr. and Matthew L. Boyatt, for North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association; Fred P. Baggett for North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police;
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and Jim O’Neill for North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, amici curiae.
HUDSON, Justice. ¶1 Gift Surplus, LLC, and Sandhill Amusements, Inc., (plaintiffs) sued Governor
Roy Cooper and several state law enforcement officials (defendants) seeking a
declaratory judgment that their operation of a sweepstakes through video game
kiosks does not violate N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, North Carolina’s criminal prohibition on
certain video sweepstakes. This case presents the third time plaintiffs have appeared
before this Court seeking to avoid liability under North Carolina’s ban on video
sweepstakes. The question presented here is whether plaintiffs’ new game, as
modified since plaintiffs last appeared before this Court, is not “dependent on skill or
chance” and is thus criminalized by N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 (2021), which prohibits the
operation of sweepstakes conducted through video games of chance. As we held over
one hundred years ago and reaffirmed when plaintiffs appeared before this Court
challenging the video sweepstakes ban twelve years ago,
[n]o sooner is a lottery defined, and the definition applied to a given state of facts, than ingenuity is at work to evolve some scheme of evasion which is within the mischief, but not quite within the letter of the definition. But, in this way, it is not possible to escape the law’s condemnation, for it will strip the transaction of all its thin and false apparel and consider it in its very nakedness. It will look to the substance and not to the form of it, in order to disclose its real elements and the pernicious tendencies which the law is seeking to prevent. The Court will inquire, not into the
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name, but into the game, however skillfully disguised, in order to ascertain if it is prohibited. It is the one playing at the game who is influenced by the hope enticingly held out, which is often false or disappointing, that he will, perhaps and by good luck, get something for nothing, or a great deal for a very little outlay. This is the lure that draws the credulous and unsuspecting into the deceptive scheme, and it is what the law denounces as wrong and demoralizing.
Hest Techs., Inc. v. State ex rel. Perdue, 366 N.C. 289, 289 (2012) (quoting State v.
Lipkin, 169 N.C. 265, 271 (1915)). After “inquir[ing], not into the name, but into the
game, however skillfully disguised” of plaintiffs, we hold that chance predominates
over skill in plaintiffs’ new game and, accordingly, that this game is a game of chance
that violates the sweepstakes statute. Accordingly, we modify and affirm the decision
of the Court of Appeals.
I. Background
¶2 This case follows from the North Carolina General Assembly’s repeated efforts
since 2006 to ban all video-gaming machines, including video poker and other video
card games. Act of June 6, 2006, N.C. Sess. Law 2006-6, §§ 4, 12, 2006 N.C. Sess.
Laws 4, 4–5, 7 (codified as amended at N.C.G.S. § 14-306.1A (2021)). Since this first
prohibition was enacted, owners of video-gaming machines have developed machines
with various interactive operations, in apparent efforts to circumvent the ban. See
Hest, 366 N.C. at 291. In response to these perceived loopholes, the General Assembly
enacted Session Law 2010-103, “An Act to Ban the Use of Electronic Machines and
Devices for Sweepstakes Purposes,” codified at N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4. 2010 N.C. Sess.
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Laws Ch. 408. N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 makes it illegal to “[c]onduct a sweepstakes
through the use of an entertaining display.” N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(b).1 ¶3 Following enactment of the law, purveyors of video-game kiosks that were
purportedly for sweepstakes challenged the law on First Amendment grounds. In
Hest, this Court held that N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 regulated conduct, with only incidental
burdens on speech, and that the law was supported by a rational basis. 366 N.C. at
303. One of the plaintiffs here, Sandhill Amusements, was among a group of vendor-
plaintiffs in a related case making the same First Amendment argument, which was
rejected by this Court for the reasons stated in Hest. Sandhill Amusements, Inc. v.
State, 366 N.C. 323, 324 (2012) (per curiam). Although the record shows Sandhill has
a long history as a video-gaming company, in that lawsuit it argued it was a business
that sold long-distance phone time, merely using video sweepstakes to promote its
service. ¶4 In 2013, shortly after our decision in Hest, Sandhill began operating and
distributing video-gaming kiosks for sweepstakes for plaintiff Gift Surplus. Gift
Surplus operates an e-commerce website, www.giftsurplus.com, but does not
maintain an inventory of the products it advertises and instead buys products as
necessary to fill orders as a drop shipping business.
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Opinion of the Court ¶5 In its business arrangement with Sandhill, Gift Surplus designs sweepstakes
kiosks that it licenses to third-party operators like Sandhill. Sandhill places the
kiosks into operation in convenience stores and retail establishments across North
Carolina. The establishments are predominantly patronized by low-income
customers, who Gift Surplus has identified as its target demographic. ¶6 Gift Surplus’s kiosks appear like large video-game machines that look akin to
video slot machines. When players put money into the kiosks, they receive what
appear to be paper receipts called “e-credits” that can be exchanged either for
products on Gift Surplus’s drop shipping website or to play Gift Surplus’s phone
games. Players also receive sweepstakes entries which can be used to immediately
play games on the kiosks. The kiosks offer five similar games, all featuring reel-
spinning video resembling a slot machine. When the game begins, the reels spin, but
the three slots never come to a stop in a complete line. Instead, players always have
to “nudge” the slots up or down so that three symbols align on the middle line. In the
initial iteration of these games, players only had to nudge one symbol into place to
win. ¶7 The game also limits the number of players who can win meaningful prizes.
On 75% of turns, the player will never be able to play for the largest prize of $2400
and, under the original setup, could win nothing. ¶8 Gift Surplus and Sandhill subsequently filed the present lawsuit, seeking a
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declaratory judgment and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief initially
against the Sheriff of Onslow County and then against the Governor and the present
state defendants. A trial court judge issued a preliminary injunction for plaintiffs,
which defendants appealed. ¶9 A divided panel of the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal in Sandhill
Amusements, Inc. v. Sheriff of Onslow Cty., 236 N.C. App. 340 (2014), rev’d per
curiam, Sandhill Amusements, Inc. v. Miller, 368 N.C. 91 (2015). Then-Judge Ervin
dissented from the Court of Appeals majority, reasoning that plaintiffs could not show
a likelihood of success on the merits at trial because chance predominated over skill
in plaintiffs’ game and, accordingly, it violated N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, so the
preliminary injunction should have been denied. Id. at 369–70 (Ervin, J., dissenting).
On appeal, this Court reversed the decision of the Court of Appeals and adopted the
reasoning of Judge Ervin’s dissenting opinion. Sandhill Amusements, Inc. v. Miller,
368 N.C. 91 (2015). ¶ 10 On remand to the trial court, Gift Surplus made two changes to its games.
First, they added a “winner-every-time” modification, so that, on the 75% of turns on
which users originally could not win any prize, retailers can set up the machine to
award a token prize of a few cents. Second, Gift Surplus added a “double nudge”
modification, so that instead of nudging one symbol to win, retailers could set up the
machines to require players to nudge two symbols into place.
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Opinion of the Court ¶ 11 After a bench trial, the trial court held that the sweepstakes game is lawful,
relying on the new modifications made since remand to conclude that, based on the
amended complaint and with the modifications, skill predominates over chance in
plaintiffs’ new game, unlike the game in Sandhill. ¶ 12 The trial court further concluded that the sale of Gift Surplus’s “e-credits” was
not a pretext for gambling. At trial, defendants presented evidence that the receipt-
like e-credits are often thrown away rather than being redeemed in the online store
or phone games. An officer in the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office testified that he
visited an establishment and observed players at the kiosks throw e-credits away
and, after searching the trash, found over $10,000 of unused e-credit receipts. ¶ 13 Defendants appealed the trial court’s judgment to the Court of Appeals. At the
Court of Appeals, the panel unanimously reversed the trial court judgment but issued
three separate opinions. See Gift Surplus, LLC v. State ex rel. Cooper, 268 N.C. App.
1 (2019). First, Judge Murphy, in an opinion joined by Judge Collins, held that, since
plaintiffs’ new game was “visual information, capable of being seen by a sweepstakes
entrant, that takes the form of actual game play, or simulated game play,” the
sweepstakes was conducted through an “entertaining display,” regardless of whether
the game was a game of chance or not. Id. at 4–5. Judge Bryant concurred in the
result and would have required that the game not depend on skill or dexterity and
held that “the games at issue do not amount to games whose outcomes are determined
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by skill and dexterity, but rather, chance.” Id. at 13 (Bryant, J., concurring in the
result). Judge Collins joined fully with Judge Murphy’s opinion, but wrote a separate
opinion reasoning that “[t]o the extent our Supreme Court’s adoption of Judge Ervin’s
dissent in Sandhill signals the Court’s determination that a sweepstakes game falls
within [N.C.G.S.] § 14-306.4’s “entertaining display” prohibition only when the video
game is not dependent on skill or dexterity, I agree with Judge Bryant’s concurring
opinion in this case . . .” Id. at 6–7 (Collins, J., concurring). Since the Court of Appeals
held plaintiffs’ new game violated N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, it declined to reach the
separate question of whether it also violated North Carolina’s prohibition on
gambling. Id. at 5. ¶ 14 Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal based on a constitutional question, which this
Court dismissed, and a petition for discretionary review, which was allowed.
Defendants filed a conditional petition for discretionary review, which was also
allowed.
II. Analysis
¶ 15 On appeal, plaintiffs first argue the Court of Appeals erred by applying a new
legal standard for claims under the video sweepstakes statute rather than the
predominant-factor test. Second, plaintiffs argue the application of the predominant-
factor test is reviewed deferentially rather than de novo. Third, plaintiffs argue that,
under the predominant-factor test, the trial court correctly determined that chance
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did not predominate over skill in plaintiffs’ new game and Judge Collins in her
concurring opinion at the Court of Appeals erred in stating otherwise., plaintiffs
argue that their new game does not constitute gambling. We consider plaintiffs’
arguments in turn.
A. The Predominant-Factor Test Under N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4
¶ 16 Plaintiffs first argue the majority opinion below erred in failing to apply the
predominant-factor test under N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 as applied in then-Judge Ervin’s
dissent in Sandhill and as adopted by this Court. Defendants do not argue for the
majority’s holding that it is not necessary to decide whether games “are chance or
skill-based.” Gift Surplus, 268 N.C. App. at 4. We agree and hold that the majority
opinion erred in failing to consider whether skill or chance predominates in the game
under the sweepstakes statute as interpreted by this Court’s prior decision in
Sandhill.2
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Opinion of the Court ¶ 17 North Carolina’s criminal code prohibits sweepstakes conducted through
electronic machines using video games of chance. This prohibition was codified at
N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, entitled “Electronic machines and devices for sweepstakes
prohibited.” Under this statute, a sweepstakes is defined as “any game, advertising
scheme or plan, or other promotion, which, with or without payment of any
consideration, a person may enter to win or become eligible to receive any prize, the
determination of which is based upon chance.” N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(5). N.C.G.S. §
14-306.4(b) provides that “it shall be unlawful for any person to operate, or place into
operation, an electronic machine or device to . . . [c]onduct a sweepstakes through the
use of an entertaining display, including the entry process or the reveal of a prize.”
N.C.G.S. § 14-306(b), (b)(1) (2019). The statute defines “entertaining display” as
follows:
[V]isual information, capable of being seen by a sweepstakes entrant, that takes the form of actual game play, or simulated game play, such as, by way of illustration and not exclusion: a. A video poker game or any other kind of video playing card game. b. A video bingo game. c. A video craps game. d. A video keno game. e. A video lotto game. f. Eight liner. g. Pot-of-gold. h. A video game based on or involving the random or chance matching of different pictures, words, numbers, or symbols not dependent on the skill or dexterity of the player.
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i. Any other video game not dependent on skill or dexterity that is played while revealing a prize as the result of an entry into a sweepstakes.
N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(3). ¶ 18 In Sandhill, this Court adopted then-Judge Ervin’s opinion dissenting from
the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals. Sandhill Amusements, Inc. v. Miller,
368 N.C. 91 (2015). In his dissenting opinion, Judge Ervin reasoned that “given that
[plaintiffs’] equipment and activities . . . clearly involve the use of electronic devices
to engage in or simulate game play based upon which a participant may win or
become eligible to win a prize, the only basis upon which [p]laintiffs’ equipment and
activities can avoid running afoul of [N.C.G.S.] § 14-306.4(b) is in the event that the
game or simulated game involved is ‘dependent on skill or dexterity.’ ” Sandhill, 236
N.C. App. at 365 (Ervin, J., dissenting). In adopting the dissenting opinion, therefore,
this Court necessarily held that sweepstakes conducted through an “entertaining
display” under the statute is only prohibited when the game or simulated game is not
“dependent on skill or dexterity.” ¶ 19 The majority opinion below, however, held that it “need not decide whether
these sweepstakes are chance or skill-based in order to hold that they violate N.C.G.S.
§ 14-306.4,” noting that “[r]egardless of whether it is dependent on skill or dexterity, a
video sweepstakes falls within the entertaining display prohibition simply if it is
‘visual information, capable of being seen by a sweepstakes entrant, that takes the
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form of actual game play, or simulated game play[.]’ ” Gift Surplus, 268 N.C. App. at
4–5 (emphasis added) (quoting N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(3)). It based its interpretation
on the fact that the list of prohibited games in the definition of “entertaining display”
in N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(3) was set out “by way of illustration and not exclusion.” ¶ 20 We conclude that the majority erred in this interpretation of the sweepstakes
statute. Although the list in question was not intended to be exhaustive, the list of
types of game play included in the statute, including poker and other card games,
bingo, and craps, contemplates only games of chance. Any doubt about whether the
statute is only concerned with games of chance is resolved by subsection (i), the
statute’s “catch-all provision,” see Hest, 366 N.C. at 292, which prohibits sweepstakes
through “[a]ny other video game not dependent on skill or dexterity . . . .” The canon
of construction ejusdem generis provides that “where general words follow a
designation of particular subjects or things, the meaning of the general words should
be construed as including only things of the same kind, character, and nature as those
specifically enumerated.” Smith v. Smith, 314 N.C. 80, 87 (1985). Applying this
principle to the catch-all provision, the logical implication of this provision is that the
other games listed are also games “not dependent on skill or dexterity” and that only
sweepstakes conducted through video games of chance are prohibited under N.C.G.S.
§ 14-306.4. In other words, the majority erred in concluding that the non-
exhaustiveness of the list meant that the only limitation on other games being
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included was that they must be video games and not that they must be games of
chance. In doing so, the majority directly contravened the dissenting opinion in
Sandhill that this Court adopted as its own, which held that a sweepstakes is not
conducted through an electronic display when it involves a game or simulated game
“dependent on skill or dexterity.” Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 365. Accordingly, we
reaffirm our prior holding that N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 prohibits sweepstakes conducted
“through the use of an entertaining display,” but only when the electronic display
“takes the form of actual game play, or simulated game play” where the game in
question is “not dependent on skill or dexterity.” N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(3); see
Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 365. ¶ 21 The question, then, is not whether plaintiffs’ new game is conducted through
an electronic display, but whether the video game is “not dependent on skill or
dexterity.” In Sandhill, by adopting the dissenting opinion, we held that this
reference to skill and dexterity incorporates “the traditional distinction between a
game of skill and a game of chance pursuant to state law” such that it prohibits
sweepstakes conducted through video games in which “chance predominates over
skill.” Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 368. In Sandhill, relying on the Court of Appeals’
prior decision in Collins Coin, Judge Ervin reasoned that “[a] game of chance is such
a game as is determined entirely or in part by lot or mere luck, and in which
judgment, practice, skill or adroitness have honestly no office at all, or are thwarted
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Opinion of the Court by chance”; that “[a] game of skill, on the other hand, is one in which nothing is left to chance, but superior knowledge and attention, or superior strength, agility and practice gain the victory”; and, accordingly, that “[i]t would seem that the test of the character of any kind of a game . . . as to whether it is a game of chance or a game of skill is not whether it contains an element of chance or an element of skill, but which of these is the dominating element that determines the result of the game, to be found from the facts of each kind of game,” or, “to speak alternatively, whether or not the element of chance is present in such a manner as to thwart the exercise of skill or judgment.” Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 368 (quoting Collins Coin Music Co., 117 N.C. App. 405, 408 (1994)) (cleaned up). In Crazie Overstock Promotions, LLC v. State, argued the same day as this case, we summarized the predominant-factor test under N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 based on this caselaw as follows:
[T]he relevant test for use in determining whether the operation of an electronic gaming device does or does not violate N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a) is whether, viewed in its entirety, the results produced by that equipment in terms of whether the player wins or loses and the relative amount of the player’s winnings or losses varies primarily with the vagaries of chance or the extent of the player’s skill and dexterity.
377 N.C. 391, 2021-NCSC-57, ¶ 23. We reaffirm that the predominant-factor test is the applicable test for determining whether a video sweepstakes is conducted through a game of chance as prohibited under N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4.
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B. The Standard of Review for the Predominant-Factor Test
¶ 22 Plaintiffs argue that defendants and Judge Collins’s concurring opinion
propose the wrong standard of review in applying the predominant-factor test under
N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4. Specifically, plaintiffs argue that “[a] factfinder’s determination
as to whether a game complies with the predominant-factor test is reviewed
deferentially.” Plaintiffs contend “the proper standard of review of a trial court’s
predominance analysis in a bench trial would be whether competent evidence
supports the factfinder’s determination that skill or dexterity predominate over
chance in a particular game.” Plaintiffs argue that “because the factfinder, whether
judge or jury, is in the best position to conduct the balance or ‘weighing’ required by
the predominant-factor test, the application of that legal standard is a factual issue
entitled to deference.” ¶ 23 Defendants in turn argue, citing State v. Gupton, 30 N.C. 271 (1848), that the
question of whether a game is a game of skill or a game of chance—that is, the
question of whether chance or skill predominates under the predominant-factor
test—is a mixed question of law and fact, and, citing Gupton and Best v. Duke
University, 337 N.C. 742, 750 (1994), that “mixed questions like these are reviewed
de novo where, as here, there is no factual dispute about how a game is played.”
Moreover, defendants note that while findings of fact from a bench trial are reviewed
for substantial evidence, an appellate court conducts “de novo review of a conclusion
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of law that the trial court [has] mislabeled as a finding of fact.” Farm Bureau v. Cully’s
Motorcross Park, 366 N.C. 505, 512 (2013). ¶ 24 In neither Sandhill nor Crazie Overstock, our Court’s recent cases applying
N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, did we expressly state the standard of review exercised by
appellate courts in evaluating a trial court’s determination of whether chance or skill
predominates in a game under that statute. However, in both cases, our Court did
not defer to the trial court’s conclusion as to whether chance or skill predominated in
the game but freely substituted its own judgment based on the undisputed evidence.
See Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 370 (“As a result, . . . I am compelled by the undisputed
evidence to conclude that the element of chance dominates the element of skill in the
operation of Plaintiffs’ machines.” (cleaned up)); Crazie Overstock, LLC, 2021-NCSC-
57 ¶ 25 (holding based on the undisputed evidence that “chance necessarily
predominates over the exercise of skill or dexterity” in the plaintiff’s game).
Accordingly, we hold that whether chance or skill predominates in a given game is a
mixed question of fact and law and is therefore reviewed de novo when there is no
factual dispute about how a game is played. See Best, 337 N.C. at 750. This approach
is consistent with Gupton, our first decision enunciating and applying the
predominant-factor test to a game of “ten pins,” or modern-day bowling, where Chief
Justice Ruffin, speaking for the Court, reviewed de novo the trial court’s
determination that the indictment adequately alleged a “game of chance” prohibited
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by our criminal laws and held that skill predominated over chance in the game. See
Gupton, 30 N.C. at 275.
C. Application of the Predominant-Factor Test
¶ 25 Having determined that the predominant-factor test will properly determine
whether plaintiffs’ video sweepstakes is conducted through a game of chance as
prohibited by N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 and that the question of whether chance or skill
predominates in plaintiffs’ new game is a mixed question of fact and law, we must
now apply the predominant-factor test to the undisputed facts of plaintiffs’ new game
to determine whether plaintiffs’ game is a game of chance. The question is “whether,
viewed in its entirety, the results produced by [plaintiffs’] equipment in terms of
whether the player wins or loses and the relative amount of the player’s winnings or
losses varies primarily with the vagaries of chance or the extent of the player’s skill
and dexterity.” Crazie Overstock, LLC, 377 N.C. 391, 2021-NCSC-57, ¶ 23. ¶ 26 In Sandhill, the dissenting opinion adopted by this Court held that chance
predominated over skill and dexterity in plaintiffs’ game as then constituted because
(1) “the machine and equipment at issue . . . only permitted a predetermined number
of winners,” (2) “use of the equipment . . . will result in the playing of certain games
in which the player will be unable to win anything of value regardless of the skill or
dexterity that he or she displays,” (3) “the extent to which the opportunity arises for
the ‘nudging’ activity . . . appears to be purely chance-based,” and (4) even assuming
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“nudging” a symbol in one direction or another involves skill or dexterity, “this
isolated opportunity for such consideration to affect the outcome [does not] override[]
the impact of the other features” of plaintiffs’ game. Sandhill, 236 N.C. App. at 369. ¶ 27 Since our reversal of the preliminary injunction in Sandhill, plaintiffs contend
that they have modified their game in two ways that support the trial court’s
determination that chance does not predominate over skill or dexterity such that
plaintiffs’ new game is not a game of chance and avoids the reach of N.C.G.S. § 14-
306.4. First, plaintiffs argue its new game “contains a ‘winner-every-time’ feature”
allowing every player who “nudges” the slot “to claim a monetary prize of some
amount.” Second, plaintiffs argue “the ‘double nudge’ feature increases the amount of
skill and dexterity required in the redesigned sweepstakes games.” ¶ 28 Defendants, in contrast, argue that plaintiffs’ new game, like its original game,
is “similar to traditional reel-spinning slot machines,” and, like the role of chance in
slot machines and poker, “chance controls the symbols that appear for players to
nudge.” Defendants contend that plaintiffs’ two new modifications do not
fundamentally alter the character of plaintiffs’ game and cause skill or dexterity to
predominate over chance such that our holding in Sandhill as to plaintiffs’ original
game no longer applies. ¶ 29 We first consider the change plaintiffs call a “ ‘winner-every-time’ feature.” In
the original game, in 75% of turns a player took, the reels did not align so that a
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nudge could nudge them into place and no prize could be won at all. In plaintiffs’ new
game, on 75% of turns a “¢” symbol appears one “nudge” from the middle row. If the
player nudges the ¢ symbol to the middle row, they now receive a nominal prize of
some cents. ¶ 30 We hold the purported “winner-every-time” feature does not alter plaintiffs’
game such that chance does not predominate over skill or dexterity. On 75% of turns
players of plaintiffs’ games will still have no opportunity to compete for the largest
possible prize of $2400. Plaintiffs argue that “the sweepstakes statute does not
discriminate among different cash prizes,” and “money has value” irrespective of how
little it is. N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(4) defines a “prize” as “any gift, award, gratuity,
good, service, credit, or anything else of value. . .” But this definition has no bearing
on whether the game in which the putative prize is awarded is “not dependent on
skill or dexterity.” N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(a)(3). If chance determines the prizes for which
players may play, then, as in the case of traditional slot machines, “the return to the
player is . . . dependent on . . . chance.” State v. Abbott, 218 N.C. 470, 479 (1940). ¶ 31 We next consider the “double-nudge” modification which, plaintiffs argue,
“increases the amount of skill and dexterity required in the redesigned sweepstakes
games.” In the original games, two of the reels would automatically align and the
third reel would show a symbol one tick out of alignment such that the player had to
press a button to “nudge” the symbol once up or down into alignment to win a prize.
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Opinion of the Court ¶ 32 In Sandhill, Judge Ervin assumed arguendo that “nudging” a symbol up or
down into alignment involved skill or dexterity. On remand, the trial court concluded
nudging involved skill because “data from actual game play in the field and data from
lab tests, both regarding the single-nudge-only games, reveal error rates that show
the games are dependent on skill.” The trial court also concluded the game involved
dexterity because the games required both “fine motor control of the hands and visual
accuracy” and “the ability to recognize and implement winning patterns” based on
playing the game and the lab data. Finally, the trial court concluded the double-nudge
modification increased the amount of skill and dexterity “[b]ecause the [player] must
evaluate the game to determine the number of nudges required and then take the
required action (one nudge or two separate nudges).” ¶ 33 Contrary to the trial court’s conclusion that plaintiffs’ games involve skill and
dexterity, we cannot conclude based on the undisputed record evidence that skill and
dexterity have any more than a de minimis role in plaintiffs’ new games, whether
they are required to make one or two “nudges” of the reels. Plaintiffs’ own expert,
whose testimony concerning error data from lab tests is the basis for the trial court’s
conclusion that nudging involved skill and dexterity, testified that, for the single-
nudge game, players correctly nudged the reel into place between 86% and 90% of the
time. While the trial court infers that the error rate for double nudging involves more
skill and dexterity, that inference is by no means warranted. A game need not be won
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Opinion of the Court
100% of the time for there to be nothing more than a minimal level of skill or dexterity
involved, and undisputed evidence shows that the skill and dexterity involved is
essentially de minimis. ¶ 34 In applying the predominant-factor test, we view plaintiffs’ game in the
entirety. In Hest, we observed that “the Court will inquire, not into the name, but into
the game, however skillfully disguised, in order to ascertain if it is prohibited.” Hest,
366 N.C. at 289. This approach is confirmed by N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4, which clarifies
that “[i]t is the intent of this section to prohibit any mechanism that seeks to avoid
application of this section through the use of any subterfuge or pretense whatsoever.”
N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4(c). ¶ 35 Here, chance controls plaintiffs’ game by determining that in 75% of turns,
players will not be eligible to play for the top prize and, indeed, cannot play for
anything more than mere cents. Accordingly, just as is the case with a traditional slot
machine, the return to the player in plaintiffs’ game is dependent on chance. Abbott,
218 N.C. at 479. Nothing about the “nudge” (or even a “double nudge”) obviates this
fundamental aspect of plaintiffs’ game. First, the skill and dexterity required to
“nudge” a reel up or down is de minimis. More fundamentally, even assuming there
was a meaningful level of skill or dexterity involved in the game, chance would always
predominate because, when chance determines the relative winnings for which a
player is able to play, chance “can override or thwart the exercise of skill.” Sandhill,
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Opinion of the Court 236 N.C. App. at 369. As in Crazie Overstock, LLC, “the extent to which a customer is able to win more than a minimal amount of money is controlled by the outcome of [Plaintiffs’ games’ initial reel spin] regardless of the level of skill and dexterity that the player displays while participating in [nudging the reels]. Crazie Overstock, LLC, 2021-NCSC-57, ¶25. This situation is also analogous to the game of poker, which, despite involving a much greater level of skill, the Court of Appeals has held to be a game of chance because the drawing of “cards . . . at random” causes chance to predominate over skill. Collins Coin, 117 N.C. App. at 409; accord Joker Club, L.L.C. v. Hardin, 183 N.C. App. 92, 99 (2007) (“No amount of skill can change a deuce into an ace.”). Here, the “winner-every-time” modification to permit a nominal award of a few cents and the “double-nudge” modification are nothing more than “thin and false apparel” over the plaintiffs’ games that the law “will strip . . . [to] consider [the game] in its very nakedness.”3 Hest, 366 N.C. at 289 (citation omitted). After considering plaintiffs’ game when “viewed in its entirety,” we hold that “the results produced by [plaintiffs’] equipment in terms of whether the player wins or loses and the relative amount of the player’s winnings or losses varies primarily with the vagaries of chance [and not] the extent of the player’s skill and dexterity.” Crazie Overstock, LLC, 2021-
3 Indeed, as defendants note, there is no guarantee that the “double-nudge” and “winner-every-time” modifications on which plaintiffs rely would even be available in actual game play since operators of kiosks may disable them or not stock the machine with coins. In such cases, the games are the same ones we held to be illegal in Sandhill.
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Opinion of the Court
NCSC-57, ¶ 23. Accordingly, we hold that plaintiffs’ game violates N.C.G.S. § 14-
306.4(a)’s prohibition on sweepstakes conducted through video games of chance.
D. Gambling
¶ 36 Plaintiff further argues its game does not constitute illegal gambling under
North Carolina’s criminal code, while the State contends that it does. Since this Court
holds that plaintiffs’ conduct violates one aspect of our State’s criminal code, we
decline to reach this issue, which was also not reached by the Court of Appeals.
III. Conclusion
¶ 37 We conclude that in plaintiffs’ new game, as in their game addressed in
Sandhill, chance predominates over skill and, accordingly, it is a video game of
chance prohibited by N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4. Because this holding is dispositive of the
case, we need not address the other issues raised by the parties. Accordingly, we
modify and affirm the opinion of the Court of Appeals.
MODIFIED AND AFFIRMED.
Justices ERVIN and BERGER did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.
Footnotes
[1] A fuller history of the General Assembly’s efforts to combat the circumvention of gambling laws is provided in Hest, 366 N.C. at 289–92.
[2] Plaintiffs argue the majority erred in failing to apply the predominant-factor test for a myriad of procedural reasons, including that the Court of Appeals “swapped horses on appeal” for the appellant, that it violated the law-of-the-case doctrine, that defendants failed to make that argument before the trial court and so abandoned it under North Carolina Rule of Appellate Procedure 10, that even if properly raised defendants abandoned the argument on appeal under Appellate Rule 28(b)(6), that adopting a theory not argued offends notions of equity and fundamental fairness, and, taken together, violation of these doctrines contravenes the “principle of party presentation” recently enunciated by the Supreme Court of the United States. See United States v. Sineneng-Smith, 140 S. Ct. 1575, 1578–89 (2020). While the majority opinion’s discarding of the predominant-factor test in interpreting N.C.G.S. § 14-306.4 in favor of a theory not advanced by any party was doubtless procedurally improper, we need not reach these issues to hold that the majority below erred because it contravened binding precedent of this Court in Sandhill. See Cannon v. Miller, 313 N.C. 324,
[324] (1985) (holding the Court of Appeals has no authority to overrule decisions of this Court).