A video poker worker says he raised as much as $15,000 in donations for State House Speaker Jim Black’s campaign.
But Robert Dunlap of Southland Amusements & Vending says he never knew of any plans to pay potential contributors for their donations.
Dunlap says his boss — Robert Huckabee — asked him whether he could raise campaign contributions from clients who owned video poker machines. Dunlap agreed with the idea.
He described his support for Black:
If the video poker industry had an — we’ll use the word — “ally,” I certainly think Mr. Black was an ally of the video poker industry because his feelings and my feelings were that if the video pokers were banned, it would put a lot of Mom and Pop convenience store operators out of business.
Black has consistently opposed efforts to ban video poker in North Carolina.
Elections board members asked Dunlap whether he ever worked with others to find names that could be tied to potential donations. He said no.
