Law enforcement agents fanned out across South Carolina on Wednesday looking for illegal video gaming machines, but they came up nearly empty.

Only one game was confiscated in Charleston County after agents visited dozens of sites.

It was found inside a locked North Charleston strip mall bar that had been closed for months.

In his parking lot courtroom, Charleston County Magistrate Jack Guedalia determined that the game, known as Chess Challenge, operated similarly to a slot machine.

Dollars went in but for a player to win, random chance "predominates over skill," Guedalia said, which makes the game illegal under South Carolina law.

He condemned the machine by signing an "order of destruction."

South Carolina law enforcement officials confiscated 21 video games -- mostly in Greenville County -- in the wake of Monday's deadline for vendors to remove payout video games the state considers illegal because they involve chance.

The machines are commonly found in convenience stores and bars.

Instead of awarding monetary payouts, they provide coupons to players to get store merchandise and food.

They crept into use after video gambling with its direct cash payouts was made illegal in 2000 by the state Supreme Court.

The low rate of seizures -- 21 machines out of 727 locations checked -- didn't disappoint State Law Enforcement Division agents who said it appeared that most of the targeted machines had been voluntarily removed by Monday's deadline.

Businesses that featured the machines to supplement their income now face a financial hit.

North Charleston vice police officer Cpl. Danny Beacham said the games represented thousands of dollars in extra income for many stores.

He knew of one business that had five machines in operation that generated about $4,000 a week.

"There's no taxes paid on it," he said. "It's all cash."

Money taken in from the gaming machines is usually divided between the business that provides the space for them and the vendor that owns them, Beacham added. It was generally a 60-40 or 50-50 split, he said.

At the Scoreboard Sports Pub on Rivers Avenue, manager Jonnie Austria said she got about $400 a week from a machine while players received gift certificates for food and T-shirts.

The loss will affect her bottom line.

"When they do this stuff, it hurts," she said.

The games seized by agents will be destroyed in 30 days.

They include such titles as Chess Challenge, Challenger, and Jungle King.

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