On cue, following much rumination on video poker machines, 75 of the things have been seized in a Cleveland County warehouse. Evidently they were illegally trucked in from South Carolina, where they are illegal, to North Carolina, where they are legal so long as you do not stack them up in warehouse. Got that?

It is pretty clear that N.C. law enforcement views the machines as vectors for criminal behavior, infecting everything they come in contact with. But I still do not have a firm grasp on what kind of the money the machines generate for their operators. I mean, why don’t we have the same problems with pinball machines?

Are there still pinball machines?