The S.C. Supreme Court on Friday issued a temporary order overturning a lower court’s ruling that Chess Challenge II video gaming machines are legal.

The court also agreed to consider in January a broader ruling that would stop all state judges from taking action similar to that taken by Judge Perry Buckner in that Allendale County case.

Chief Robert Stewart of the State Law Enforcement Division on Friday afternoon notified S.C. chiefs of police and sheriffs that the popular Chess Challenge II machines are now subject to seizure.

“SLED will survey businesses in the state and seize any Chess Challenge II machines” and take them immediately to a magistrate, Stewart said.

Chess Challenge II was developed by Castle King, based in the Berkeley County town of Goose Creek. Jonathan Altman, one of the lawyers representing Castle King, declined to comment on the matter when contacted Friday night. The company’s Chess Challenge I was pulled from the market Sept. 15 after an agreement with state regulators.

A controversial state Supreme Court ruling banned video gambling in July 2000. The court banned cash payouts as well as games of chance.

The State reported Sunday that since July 2000, state police have confiscated about 1,300 illegal machines featuring 50 different games in more than half of the 46 counties.

The State also reported pro-gambling forces are mustering renewed courtroom assaults that critics worry may snowball into a return to widespread — now-illegal — video gambling.

Buckner’s Oct. 29 ruling blocked law enforcement officers from seizing Chess Challenge II machines statewide. His order, in effect, declared the machines legal games of skill.

SLED’s Stewart asked the state Supreme Court to skip the appellate process and issue an immediate order overturning Buckner and removing the machines from the market. He argued Chess Challenge is not a game of skill but a game of chance, which makes the popular game illegal.

The state’s video gaming laws say a judge can’t declare a whole class of machines legal or illegal, as Buckner did. Machines must be ruled either a game of chance or a game of skill one machine at a time. Anti-gambling lawmakers have said that measure was written into the law to help slow the growth of the legal gaming industry, to give lawmakers and police an opportunity to monitor its growth.

In its order on Friday, the Supreme Court justices:

• Nullified Buckner decision

• Said they would rule on a more sweeping request from SLED that the court order all S.C. circuit court judges to refrain from taking action similar to Buckner’s

• Did not agree to let a private attorney represent the state in the Allendale case. SLED had asked that the attorney be allowed in after state Attorney General Henry McMaster filed an appeal that removed SLED as a party to the case. SLED gaming experts have assisted law enforcement agents around the state when machines have been seized.

Court papers say both sides agreed to the order.

Under S.C. law, once a video gaming machine is declared illegal, all machines and machine parts are considered illegal gambling contraband, subject to seizure.

Stewart said SLED has received reports in the past several days about businesses making plans to move Chess Challenge II machines out of the state.