Royally flushed: Judge rules owners can't get back poker machines seized in raid

A judge's decision will likely pave the way for state prosecutors to send $500,000 worth of video poker machines to a place where the games of chance will have no chance - a crusher.

A total of 119 video poker machines were seized during a raid in Blacksburg on May 7, 2007, about two weeks after a casino-on-wheels opened to the public. All of the machines were set up inside stationary rail cars on Quarry Road.

Nova Leasing, a New Jerseybased company that owned the machines, was trying to get them back. During an appeal heard in Cherokee County Circuit Court last month, attorneys for the company claimed Nova was an innocent third party that had no idea its leased machines were being set up in Blacksburg and that a 2005 state law on cruise ship gambling meant video poker machines didn't automatically qualify as contraband that had to be destroyed.

Circuit Judge Mark Hayes, who presided over the appeal, didn't buy Nova Leasing's claims, according to an as-of-yet unofficial e-mailed copy of the judge's decision that has been entered into the record at the Cherokee County Clerk of Courts Office.

In the ruling, Hayes agreed with Cherokee County Chief Magistrate Bart Howell's previous determination that the poker machines were contraband; illegal to own or possess and, therefore, unreturnable.

Referring to Nova Leasing's claim it was an innocent owner, the judge wrote, "This defense has no merit because a court will not recognize nor enforce a contract whose subject matter is illegal."

It didn't matter that the operator of the machines may have relied on purported legal advice that the machines were legal, the judge found, or that Nova Leasing didn't know the machines were going to end up in Blacksburg.

"They (Nova Leasing) are not entitled to their return because the video poker machines are illegal under South Carolina law as soon as they enter the state and are not susceptible to lawful ownership," the judge wrote.

It was unclear Thursday if the matter is settled.

A spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, which handled the case for the state, said the office could not comment until there is a signed order and final ruling.

Judge Hayes' e-mailed ruling instructed the Attorney General's Office to prepare a formal order for his signature.

Nova Leasing's lawyer could not be reached for immediate comment.