In his latest video for Reason.tv, Drew Carey goes all in to report how Dallas cops carried out a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837, which has now been forced to close its doors.
The raid is part of a broader move by local police to shut down poker games, arrest players, and seize property – even in low stakes games benefiting charity, like at the VFW. And it’s emblematic of the government’s misguided war on gambling, such as the recently enacted federal ban on Internet wagering. In most jurisdictions throughout the country, consenting adults are banned from gambling — unless of course they want to bet on low-odds games run by the government. State lotteries, that is.
The Dallas VFW case goes to court December 5.
TEXAS CLOSE’EM: COPS RAID POKER GAMES
One Response to TEXAS CLOSE’EM: COPS RAID POKER GAMES
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So, one thing is clear with a lot of the US Gov’t (state/fed/local) crackdowns of late… if it’s not THEIR vice it’s not a valid ‘vice’. Take drinking for instance, or pot or prostitution or strip clubs or this example: gambling. I’m the first to admit that gambling does pray on a whole lot of really incapable people (spending their money in hopes of making this months mortgage for instance) or the ‘lotto’ types of folks spending 200$/week that could be better spent on their children/car/rent/food, but does the gov’t need to police which ‘vice’ people have?
I can see that within some reasonable limits (heroin/crack/coke/unlicensed prostitution) there might be some guidelines, but taxing and regulating these things seems much better for the society as a whole. I’m sure that the prim/proper southern (and some northern) politicians don’t want to go out on a limb with their closeted constituencies and support prostitution or weed, but really is that any worse than their toe-tapping in the mens room dances that they’ve been doing for the last 40 years? I, for one, am sick and tired of the hypocrisy and idiocy and idolatry that politicians today support in order to feel ‘good’ about themselves or to help their constituency feel ‘safe’ from all those things that they do under cover of darkness anyway.
Stop fooling yourselves and just get over it, yes you like it-in-the-butt/weed/prostitution/gambling, sheesh! It’s not hurting anyone and it’s a great tax base to exploit.
-Chris