Letters sent to local officials Monday show HSV Entertainment has converted its gaming systems in the Royal Palace Theatre to comply with a state law that was challenged in the state Supreme Court.

Roanoke Rapids City Attorney Gilbert Chichester faxed and mailed the letters to police Chief Jeff Hinton, Halifax County Sheriff Jeff Frazier and Halifax County District Attorney Melissa Pelfrey. Copies of the letters obtained by rrspin.com this morning also show Mayor Emery Doughtie and City Manager Joseph Scherer received them.

“As you may or may not know, the inclusion of ‘Accessory Use’ in the lease for the Roanoke Rapids Theater was very important to the tenant, HSV Entertainment LLC,” the letter says. “Since the decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court in (the) Hest Technologies case on December 14, 2012, in which the court declared the (law) to be constitutional, the various software providers have been attempting to convert the software so that the terminals will comply with the provisions (of the law).”

The law makes it illegal to conduct a sweepstakes through the use of an entertaining display to reveal a prize, Chichester explains in the letter. The statutory explanation of entertaining display is visual information capable of being seen by a sweepstakes entrant that takes the form of actual game play or any other video game not dependent on skill or dexterity that is played while revealing a prize.

On Monday Chichester previewed a converted system demonstrated by Kevin B. Morse, an attorney for Figure 8 Technologies. Figure 8 Technologies is one of the largest suppliers for these systems, the city attorney notes in the letter. “The terminals as converted by Figure 8, Blue Diamond Pre-Reveal Sweepstakes System, have a disclaimer in the official rules that identifies the terminal as using a pre-reveal system that does not use an entertaining display to conduct the sweepstakes.”

On the converted system, Chichester says, the customer simply presses the reveal button on the screen and the prize, if any, will be revealed to the customer in plain text format. “If the customer elects, he may play the game, but the game is not necessary or even used in the entry process to reveal any prize.”

Said Chichester: “It is my opinion that the Blue Diamond Pre-Reveal system converted by Figure 8 that I reviewed today, which did not use an entertaining display does not violate (the law). Furthermore, any other system similarly converted should be closely examined as to any illegality.”