Anson County Sheriff Tommy Allen said that his office has begun enforcing the ban on video sweepstakes operations and machines beginning Jan. 3.

The N.C. General Assembly passed new laws banning such operations in 2010 but the ban had been tied up in court rulings over the past two years. The N.C. Supreme Court recently unanimously overruled a lower court decision and upheld the ban on sweepstakes operations.

Sheriff Allen said that he and his officers had personally visited every known operation in the county and given the operators notice of the coming ban. To assist the sheriff, the Wadesboro Police Department, whose jurisdiction has the largest number of machines, and other police departments around the county have done the same notifications for those businesses operating inside city limits.

“I believe we’ve given these operations adequate notice and are working with them to comply,” Allen said. “We’re just enforcing the law that was passed by the General Assembly and recently upheld by the Supreme Court. We recently met with the District Attorney on the matter as well. We’ve notified every location we are aware of that has these operations or has stand-alone machines. Everyone we’ve spoken to has been corporative. If we’ve missed any location or machine, I hope someone will give us a call.”

The Anson County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 704-694-4188.