Some examples of questionable state laws
(To view the gambling laws for your state now, skip to the bottom)

• In Delaware , telephone messages "overheard" by police are admissable as evidence, and do not violate privacy laws, as illegal phone tapping should
• In Kansas, commercial casinos, lotteries, and noncharitable Bingo are forbidden, yet licensed horse and dog racing is allowed
• If you live in Maine , you can be prosecuted there for gambling in another state where gambling is legal
• In Montana , the laws actually list all permitted "amusement" games, from bean bag tosses to Tic Tac Toe. Any game not addressed could be considered illegal
• In New Mexico , only Senior Citizen groups are allowed to play noncharitable Bingo
• In many states, owning a slot machine is illegal. But in North Carolina , you can be charged with a separate offense for every time the lever is pulled
• In Ohio , noncharitable Bingo is a felony of the fourth degree (6-18 months in jail and a $5000 fine)
• In Rhode Island , if you invite someone to a gambling place, you shall be imprisoned for one year. And anyone who "frequents" a gambling place shall also be imprisoned
• In South Carolina , keeping gaming tables open or playing games on the Sabbath is illegal. What happened to separation of church and state?
• In Washington, commercial casinos and noncharitable Bingo are illegal, but unlicensed turkey shooting contests for wagers of money are allowed. Internet gambling is illegal and the penalty was recently increased to a Class C (five year imprisonment) felony
• In Wisconsin, if you are transmitting or receiving any information about gambling, your public utility companies are obligated by law to cut you off from service

Voters petitioned for commercial casinos to benefit education and were struck down by the Senate inFlorida (2005) and Kansas (2006).  Why does the government frown upon gambling as "evil," even when the proceeds could assist school systems and communities?

It all started with the Model Antigambling Act.  Originally adopted in 1952, yet declared "obselete" in 1984 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the Act was adopted in several states and then influenced the antigambling statues of the other states.  The drafters of the act defined and criminalized gambling, considering those who conducted the gambling activities for profit the worst offenders; those who played the illegal for-profit games the second worst offenders; and considering the activities of mere social gamblers noncriminal.  But the states took it and ran, and many states do not even allow social gambling in the privacy of one's own residence.

Here are a few portions of the Prefatory Note before the Model Antigambling Act.  The actual Act itself is just a lot of the legalese about the definitions of gambling, that are found throughout the states' antigambling laws.

"One of the most basic and significant findings of the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce was:

'Gambling profits are the principal support of big-time racketeering and gangsterism.  These profits provide the financial resources whereby ordinary criminals are converted into big-time racketeers*, political bosses, pseudo businessmen, and alleged philanthropists.'"

racketeer:  one who obtains money by an illegal enterprise usually involving intimidation
(Merriam-Webster)

So gambling is defined as obtaining money in an intimidating way?  Since when do gamblers these days intimidate each other?  Before we evolved into a commercial machine, perhaps these laws made sense.  When gambling was at tables without a hundred security cameras aimed at it, without policemen and undercover security with earpieces, before we became civilized and politically correct all the way down to the littlest details of our hobbies.

But why now?  Now, when laws could be just as easily drafted to define the penalties for cheating and "intimidating"...what, promoters?  Go to my casino or I'll pop you one.  Put another quarter in or I'll kick your ass.

Instead of passing new issues every November, can we analyze the relevancy of the current laws a little bit?

"In shaping its own program, therefore, the Commission on Organized Crime asked for authority to review local gambling laws and to propose model legislation to curb this fantastic illegal enterprise at a local level.  Such authority was given."

The statements that gambling needs to be curbed for "obvious reasons" and that it is understood that gambling leads to other offenses are prevalent throughout; however, the closest this act comes to giving a reason why is as follows:

"The professional gambler has been clearly exposed as a social evil, and as has been noted, his activities are recognized as the backbone of organized crime.  His importance as the key to the situation has been widely recognized by the courts:

'The purpose of the Legislature was to discourage and repress gambling in all its forms and the law is to be construed as to accomplish, so far as possible, the suppression of the mischief against which it was directed...Curb the professional with his constant offer of temptation, coupled with read opportunity, and you have, to a large extent, controlled the evil..."

Go on, click your state.

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