Rep. Earl Jones called a news conference Tuesday to announce his longshot effort to legalize and regulate video gambling has new endorsements.

The Black Caucus and the State Employees Association of North Carolina support the bill, which would take for the state 20 cents for every dollar spent on video poker machines. Dropping video gambling machines in bars, convenience stores and other establishments across the state could raise nearly $500 million in new revenue, Jones said.

And perhaps anticpating arguments about proliferating gambling across the state, Jones repeatedly stated his opinion that video gaming is no different than the lottery.

"Gambling activity is gambling activity, whether you're talking about a video lottery or a scratch-off ticket," said Jones, a Greensboro Democrat.

Dana Cope, present of SEANC, which represents 55,000 public employees, said the new revenue would allow the state to continue to provide needed services.

"North Carolina's government made this decision. We as a public made this decision when we voted to support the lottery in North Carolina," Cope said. "This is just the natural progression to regulate this industry to get that revenue income into the coffers of the state."

Video poker machines have left a legacy of corruption in the state. William Thevaos, president of the Entertainment Group of North Carolina, said the fact that the industry wants regulation and taxation shows that things will be different.

"We want to be taxed. We want to be legal," Thevaos said. "We want to create a new industry and we want to work with the state."

More after the jump.

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Rep. Earl Jones filed a bill Wednesday that would legalize video poker and give the state a 20 percent cut of gaming profits.

The bill would allow up to 10 machines in one establishment. Players would have to be 18 and could not bet more than $5 on a hand.

Jones, the sole sponsor of the bill, compared spending money on video poker to investing in hobbies such as golf or going to sports games. Lots of people in the state play Bingo, he said.

"I don't think people should be paternalistic because they feel like they can tell other people how to spend their money," Jones said.

Jones said the state's cut of poker money would be at least $480 million a year. Half would go to the general fund and the other half would go to education, he said.

The bill has little support in the House. Speaker Joe Hackney doesn't support it, a spokesman said. House Republican Leader Paul Stam said Thursday that the bill isn't going anywhere.

Correction: The bill was not sent to the House Rules committee as a previous version of this post indicated. It was sent to Judiciary II and then Finance.

Update: Senate leader Marc Basnight said it's too early to comment on the chances of the bill in the Senate because it hasn't cleared the House.

But a spokesman said he is not a fan of the industry.

"Video poker is the most awful form of legalized gambling their is and he cannot think of any benefit from it whatsoever and cannot imagine legalizing it," Schorr Johnson, a spokesman for Basnight said.