Monday, July 29, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.
"I'm like a kid at Christmas," said Sgt. Burt Hyde Jr. of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriffs from throughout the state have asked for a ban for two years, but legislators have resisted until this session.
The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill banning the machines. If the bill passes the House, which lawmakers say it has a good chance of doing, video poker machines would be banned in the state effective Dec. 1.
Casinos on the Cherokee Indian reservation in western North Carolina would be exempt.
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