UL: the hypocrisy of NH gambling laws

[KBCraig]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Robert+Philbrick%3a+Milford+arrests+show+hypocrisy+of+NH+gambling+laws&articleId=d0ff60a3-38a0-4795-8802-46e6598834f1

Robert Philbrick: Milford arrests show hypocrisy of NH gambling laws

By ROBERT PHILBRICK
Commentary

Recently, after an extensive undercover operation involving countless man-hours, two local men were indicted on felony gambling charges at the Milford VFW post. According to puritanical state law, making cash payoffs on video poker machines is a class B felony, punishable by a prison term of 3 1/2 to 7 years.

Listening to the New Hampshire Liquor Commission Enforcement Division's deputy chief, Kyle Metcalf, one would think they uncovered a methamphetamine lab deep in the bowels of the local club. You might also think they brought down a couple of top-ranking organized-crime kingpins, what with the degree of multi-departmental law-enforcement manpower involved in the "raid."

Thank goodness we don't have to worry about Doug Bianchi and Artie Gagnon preying upon hapless gambling addicts any longer. Their reign of lawlessness and illicit activities is finally at an end. After all, as Mr. Metcalf warns, ". . . gambling is not a victimless crime, because addicts don't just hurt themselves", and ". . . instead of supporting their families, they are playing video poker or engaging in other forms of illegal gambling."

Of course, they could, instead, participate in the legal, "good gambling" sanctioned by the state of New Hampshire, in the form of Powerball, Megabucks, myriad scratch ticket games, etc., at the convenience store not 50 paces from the "bad gambling" video games the same state agents tell us are illegal, immoral and harmful to families.

In the room next to the den of iniquity at the Harley-Sanford VFW post, you can spend your paycheck on 50-cent "pull-tabs," another legalized gambling game the state of New Hampshire happily takes its cut from.

Allow me to point out the absolute hypocrisy of Mr. Metcalf's department as well as our lawmakers in this fine state. We are told video poker machines are an evil we need to be protected from, to the point of potentially imprisoning anyone found making cash payouts on these machines. Yet the state eagerly promotes other forms of gambling such as horse and dog racing, multiple lotteries and scratch ticket games available in every convenience and liquor store in the state.

The lottery commission actually made the fairly painless $1 scratch ticket into a $20-a-shot wallet drainer, available most anywhere. And the Legislature just approved a $30 scratch ticket. If video poker machines are so detrimental to the family unit, then all gambling should be treated as such.

Metcalf's department says it received "some" calls praising the raid and some complaints about the machines that generated the investigation, but I imagine it was probably a few disgruntled housewives, angry over their spouses' indiscretions with the family finances.

Did Metcalf and his people make sure these same fools went home in a timely fashion before they spent all their money at the bar? Of course not. You can't legislate morality and certainly can't enforce good decision-making.

As the comedian Ron White aptly put it, "you can't fix stupid."

Is it a good idea to place liquor stores on the state's largest highway? Or to put a large display rack promoting the sale of "nip" bottles of hard liquor right at the checkout register? When's the last time you went to a cocktail party where the host had these one-to-two ounce bottles on the table for making drinks? Probably never. Those bottles are perfect for a quick snort as you head back out on the road. But "don't drink and drive."

These are two glaring examples of moronic decision-making at the state level. The law regarding certain types of "illegal" gambling needs to be changed. Gambling is gambling, no matter the venue, and telling us that one type is OK but another is not is not only hypocritical, but patronizing and asinine.

Bianchi and Gagnon are not Capone and Luciano, and Kyle Metcalf is certainly no Eliot Ness. This "crime" should be nothing more than a misdemeanor, with a slap on the wrist and a modest fine at worst.

I would like to believe that our law enforcement community has far more important issues to contend with, and the money and manpower expended on the five video games surely could be better used elsewhere, no matter how much of a "boon to the community at large" their confiscation is, as Mr. Metcalf assures.

People eat, drink, smoke and gamble too much, and unless you want nanny-state politicians hiding under your bed, making sure you live the right way, life is going to go on, and we're all going to end up in the same place, saints and sinners alike. The question is, who's having more fun?

Robert Philbrick owns RDP Water Systems in Milford.

[Spencer]

NH was the first state in modern times to create a lottery . . . I believe that it was back in 1972.  It is one of the things that "progressive" people oppose, while advocating an income tax, because the lottery is a "regressive tax."