In a pair of 2-1 decisions, the N.C. Court of Appeals has ruled against the state in its legal fight with video sweepstakes game owners.

Judge Ann Marie Calabria’s opinion in one of the cases concludes:

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-306.4 regulates constitutionally protected speech. Specifically, the portion of the statute which forbids revealing a sweepstakes result by means of an entertaining display acts as a regulation of plaintiffs’ right to communicate the results of otherwise lawful sweepstakes by means of a specific category of protected speech. While this Court has recognized, and we agree, that “[i]t is the legislature’s prerogative to establish the conditions under which bingo, lotteries, or other games of chance are to be permitted,” Animal Protection Society v. State of North Carolina, 95 N.C. App. 258, 269-70, 382 S.E.2d 801, 808 (1989), the portion of the statute at issue in the instant case regulates solely how a sweepstakes result is communicated, rather than the underlying circumstances under which the sweepstakes are permitted. The General Assembly cannot, under the guise of regulating sweepstakes, categorically forbid sweepstakes operators from conveying the results of otherwise legal sweepstakes in a constitutionally protected manner. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-306.1 is unconstitutionally overbroad in these circumstances and must be declared void.