A new law in the U.S. state of North Carolina may outlaw and shut down the only significant form of gambling currently going on within their borders. A new law, House Bill 80, was passed by the state legislature last week and is awaiting the signature of Governor Beverly Perdue, who is expected to sign the bill into law within the next week.

This isn’t the first time that gambling fans in the Tar Heel state have been targeted by lawmakers. Dating as far back as 1791, most forms of gambling have been illegal. In 2006, the state passed laws that banned video poker. That same year, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which allows the feds to go after financial institutions involved in transactions related to “unlawful” online gambling, whatever that means.

Last year, North Carolina’s legislature passed a law banning online gambling. The law targeted online slot games, or “server-based electronic game promotions,” as it is worded in the law. That shut down the online slot business at Internet cafes, but the gamblers found a way around the law.

As a way of complying with the letter of the law while still allowing customers to spend their money as they please, Internet sweepstakes cafes were established. These establishments and the games they provide are legal because they have predetermined sweepstakes systems for the awarding of prizes, rather than it being done in an online pool. In addition, the sweepstakes machines don’t pay out to the players, since that is banned by a different state law. Instead, players get their winnings from a teller in the café.

If House Bill 80 becomes state law, North Carolina residents will lose yet another form of gambling and the Internet sweepstakes cafes will have to shut down. The law would take effect on January 1, 2011, so the cafes would have to be closed by then.