Fulton County Superior Court Judge John J. Goger issued a permanent injunction against the law, calling it "arbitrary, overbroad and overinclusive."

"However well-intentioned this legislation may be, it must be doomed," Judge Goger wrote in the ruling. "The law criminalizes a game when it is being played and operated as a game.

"This is the sort of lawmaking which poses a real threat to liberty."

Gov. Roy Barnes asked Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Monday morning to immediately appeal Judge Goger's ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court. The court could rule within days or months, depending on its own timetable, legal experts say.

Mr. Baker's staff is still reviewing the ruling to decide how to argue against it.

Judge Goger wrote that the definitions used in the bill to describe gambling devices could be interpreted to outlaw some "innocent" arcade games.

"These provisions ... ban games that can be used for an innocent purpose (i.e. pure amusement) simply because they can also be used for 'evil' purposes (i.e. gambling)," Judge Goger wrote.

Many lawmakers, who passed the ban during a special session of the Legislature last year, were upset by the ruling.

"It's disappointing," said Sen. Mike Beatty, R-Jefferson, who last winter was an early voice calling for a video poker ban. "But these types of illicit industries who have the kind of money they do do not die easy."

While using the machines for gambling has always been illegal, critics say the law was routinely broken - particularly after a ban in South Carolina pushed thousands of the games into Georgia's border communities.

Existing state laws, they said, were full of loopholes that made it difficult to prosecute people who use the games to pay cash prizes.

Mr. Beatty disagreed with the judge, saying the law goes to great lengths to describe which games would be illegal and which would be protected.

"What this law did was specifically define what those devices are and eliminate them from the state of Georgia," he said. "That's exactly what the people of this state have made very clear they wanted done."

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, one of several key Democrats who originally supported allowing video poker machines to remain legal but under stricter regulation, eventually pushed for a ban after a Georgia Bureau of Investigation report called the games "the crack cocaine of gambling."

He said Monday he, too, was disappointed.

"We have done the right thing for the people of Georgia," said Mr. Taylor, who said he doubts the General Assembly will tinker with the law while the ruling is being appealed.

"The Legislature has spoken on this issue," he said.

Lawyers for the amusement companies who challenged the law were pleased with the judge's ruling.

"It respects the right of an individual to make a free choice," said Howard Manchel, attorney for the Georgia Amusement and Music Operators Association that challenged the law.

Last month, the association, along with gaming companies Old South Amusements and Gameworld Inc., filed a suit in Fulton County Superior Court saying the law would unfairly deprive them of money for their machines bought for a business that was legal until the law changed.

On Dec. 28, just four days before the ban was set to begin, Judge Goger held a hearing on the matter and delayed the start date, saying he needed more time to study the arguments.

Even though the machines remain legal for now, GBI officials say they will continue to arrest people who violate the remaining laws prohibiting commercial gambling.

Reach Doug Gross at (404) 589-8424 or mnews@mindspring.com.