ROWLAND — The town Board of Commissioners began making amendments to its already established game room ordinance to gain control over sweepstakes machines on Tuesday night.

“We’ve been talking about this for three months,” Commissioner Bob Lowery Jr. said. “We need to figure something out.”

The board learned from Rowland Police Chief John Reaves that there are 109 sweepstakes machines scattered throughout the town. Sweepstakes machines are computers operated by purchasing and using a pre-paid phone card to win cash prizes.

“They are coming in like we are a casino town,” Commissioner Jean Love said. “We need to take care of this so we don’t end up like a small Vegas.”

The town of Fairmont sent the board a copy of its proposed ordinance on computer gaming, which includes annual fees of $1,500 per computer not accessible to the Internet and $3,000 per computer for those with Internet connection.

Commissioner Paul Hunt Jr. and Lowery considered adopting Fairmont’s ordinance with a few amendments that would meet Rowland’s needs.

Commissioner M.C. Shooter and Love suggested simply adding sweepstakes machines or computer gaming to the town’s standing game room ordinance because most of the restrictions that the board wanted to make were already in place, such as not allowing the machines to be used on Sundays.

“There’s a lot of things you can’t do on Sundays,” Shooter said. “You can’t sell (alcohol) on Sundays, so why should we allow gambling?”

The established game room ordinance prohibits a person convicted of a felony from obtaining a license to operate game rooms, and the board wants to extend that rule to computer gaming.

An annual fee of $300 for every gaming machine, whether it be accessible to the Internet or not, was approved by the board.

The board also wants to establish zoning restrictions on where the computer gaming machines can be located.

In other business:

— Mayor Hunt, Commissioner Hunt, and Commissioner Shooter were sworn into office. They all ran unopposed for re-election on Nov. 3.

— Mark Smith, the new principal of South Robeson High School, introduced himself to the board.

— The board approved the town’s participation in the Health Department’s Ash Tray Dump Day, in which local businesses can dispose of ashtrays to anticipation of the smoking ban in restaurants and bars that takes effect Jan. 2.

— The board approved placing no parking signs on Main Street near the Chamber Building and the BB&T bank because of large trucks parking in the area, causing traffic problems.