BY MIKE CETERA
A week before the Super Bowl, a neighbor told me about an annual betting pool he and his buddies enter. Such pools are not hard to find -- a trip to your local watering hole is about all it takes.
This pool offered up "squares" that corresponded with the score of the game at the end of each quarter. If the score matched your square, you earned a piece of the pool. Simple as that. The Aurora bar where this pool took place sold squares at $1,000 a piece. Shocked at the price, I declined my neighbor's invitation.
I offer up this anecdote as validation of Elburn Mayor Jim Willey's understatement in addressing the bust of a similar gambling operation in his town: "I don't believe this is only happening in Elburn."
Of course it's not. But the question is why do these anti-gambling laws -- which are selectively enforced -- exist?
To protect people from themselves? If that's the case, close down the casinos and the OTBs. And end the state lottery. Now.
Gambling laws exist for one reason: to allow the government to get its cut. That's why it's OK to play poker in a casino, but not online. That's why Illinois lawmakers are pondering whether to allow horse-racing bets over the Internet.
That $100,000 betting pool at the Aurora bar -- and at the now shuttered Elburn tavern -- is verboten because the government doesn't get its vig. It's not out of some moral obligation to protect society.
In a doesn't-the-government-have-anything-better-to-do editorial, the Los Angeles Times two years ago called on the federal government to back off gambling restrictions on the web. The same standard should be applied to "real-world" gambling in Fox Valley towns and beyond:
Legalization also would allow the government to tax the industry and mitigate its hypocrisy in sanctioning some forms of gambling, such as state lotteries, but not others. Moralistic members of Congress should not be allowed to thwart online freedoms. It's unlikely they will succeed anyway.
Cetera,
I disagree with "It's not out of some moral obligation to protect society" because collecting the tax on earned gambling money is the obligation of the government. The tax provides for society and treats everyone equal (we should all be accountable for some tax). The government uses that money to operate services that you and so many other Americans seem to take for granted.
I believe the Anti-Gambling Laws are written with the intention to protect society. It doesn't seem fair to me that someone can earn say $50k a year in gambling income and not be accountable for any taxes.
How can you disagree?
CETERA REPLIES:
Yes, make them pay taxes. But also stop prosecuting people for putting some money down at a bar on a sporting event.
Gaming Lobbist would be out of a job for one. You know the American Mafia "Govt" isnt getting their taste of the action.
You need to prosecute them to set an example. Else, why have the law?
The "Govt" is not some foreign entity. We are the government.
The point I was trying to make -- unclear as it may have been -- is that we should get rid of the law and set up a way to tax these small bar operations, if you must.
"set up a way to tax these small bar operations"
Well thats not a solution. lol. I think its complicated to enforce a tax with no law.
Oh, for crying out loud -- get rid of the law making it illegal. Decriminalize gambling. Sheesh.