“Hypocrisy is the most difficult vice man can pursue”
W. Somerset Maugham
Once again New Hampshire’s forces of law and order have rallied their troops to protect the public from itself. In these latest crusades, many of the state’s law enforcement resources have been squandered in trying to stamp out what may be the world’s second oldest vice … gambling.
In the first instance, a small army of police officers swept through several of the Granite State’s major cities, confiscating illegal video poker machines and arresting both the entrepreneurs who owned these gaming devices as well as a number of innocent citizens unfortunate enough to have been using them at the time of the raids.
Then, less than two week’s ago, a self-righteous legion of police chiefs held a well-publicized press conference to denounce gubernatorial candidate Wayne King and his supporters for suggesting the expansion of legalized gambling might provide at least part of the incremental revenue he perceives the state needs to broaden its financing of public education.
Any number of cynics have proposed reasonable arguments suggesting both Wayne King and the police chiefs are playing fast and loose with the issue for political reasons.
For the Rumford Democratic, becoming a born-again gambler is an obvious attempt to salvage his flagging campaign to unseat Steve Merrill who has publicly opposed any expansion of gambling. At the same time, the New Hampshire Association of Police Chiefs many of whose members supported Governor Merrill during his race for the
corner office two years ago, have been accused of staging their anti-gambling press conference as a means of fueling a political attack on the Democratic hopeful.
Despite the righteous rhetoric spewed forth by the self-anointed guardians of public morality, the fiscal contribution from the array of Sweepstakes Commission games is not insignificant.
There is enormous hypocrisy on the part of the governor, the police chief’s association, state legislators and others who delight at feeding at the public trough while regularly killing all efforts to broaden and privatize lawful gambling.
It would be interesting to take a survey to discover just how many of the assembled police chiefs, supporters of the Governor’s position on gambling and other social moralists have spent any time at the gaming tables in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, at Foxwood or during a vacation cruise.
The arguments against gambling are well known. The range from the moralistic (thou shall “lay no wagers”) to the psychobabble concerns some individuals may gamble too much to the flame fanning fears if gambling is legalized the syndicate will soon take over the state.
For those who believe gambling is a sin, clearly no one will force them to place any bets. For that matter, there are many residents who ignore the inane sweepstakes ads and simply don’t buy lottery tickets because they understand the odds are stacked against them!
The concern lower income people will bet too heavily is patronizing, at best, and perhaps racist at its worst. It is not up to any gaggle of social do-gooders to dictate how individuals in a free society order their lives or spend their money. The inalienable right to make choices includes the option to make wise and imprudent decisions without interference or restriction.
Finally, as for the anxieties of the law-and-order folks, perhaps they should consider how few legal businesses organized crime runs. Legalize gambling, create an environment which forestalls monopolies, encourage entrepreneurs to enter the field and sit back and watch the free market operate … creating jobs, profits and taxes … all absent governmental tampering.
It makes absolutely no sense to continue perpetuating the farce suggesting only state-sponsored gaming exists. Moreover, it is a waste of precious law enforcement resources which could be better deployed solving crimes against the property, persons and civil rights of the public.
Gambling is a consensual activity for which there is no victim … other than the participant who must assume responsibility for his/her own activities and decisions. Continued attempts to regulate this, or other forms of individual morality, are doomed to failure.
