Saturday, March 18, 2006

39: “And So It Begins…”


An article from the Harrisburg Patriot News on Friday, March 17, 2006 reports the Liquor Control Board has been conducting a large number of raids on social and veterans’ clubs in the midstate area to crack down on illegal small games of chance.

Read the entire article at
PennLive.com.

Chances of gaming raid rise at midstate clubs
Friday, March 17, 2006
BY
CARRIE CASSIDY
Of The Patriot-News
The state has fined dozens of veterans posts, social clubs and fire companies in the midstate as part of a statewide crackdown of organizations offering small games of chance, such as bingo, punch cards and raffles.

For the past year or so, agents of the state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement have been inspecting clubs in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and York counties to ensure that they are obeying the state's law regulating games of chance.

Many club operators said they are being fined based on an outdated law that was passed in the late 1980s. They said restrictions on the size of prizes and use of the games' proceeds have not kept up with inflation or clubs' needs.

Some club operators said they fear the crackdown could force their clubs to close. It also has fueled theories that the state wants to make future slot-machine parlors, such as the one planned for Penn National Race Course in Grantville, the only gambling venues around. While the bureau has stepped up inspections the crackdown has nothing to do with the planned slots parlors, said Lt. Doug Martin, a spokesman for the Liquor Control Enforcement Bureau.

"There's no correlation between that whatsoever," Martin said yesterday. "We have not changed the manner of enforcement because of the slots law that was passed. Personally, I think [the increase in inspections] is because we've had recent training on it, so the officers are better educated about what clubs are allowed to do."

Sure, Doug. Whatever you say.

This gambling thing is going to ruin an awful lot of the things people in the Commonwealth do to raise money for non-profit organizations. They say they won’t but they will. They say they’ll pull their customers from as far away as 140 miles, but less than 10% will come from that far away – 80% of their gambling customers will be local. That’s taking an awful lot of money out of the communities local to the gambling establishments. Much more than will ever come back in through the apportioned contributions built into the legislation enabling gambling in the Commonwealth.

This is a very ugly thing your governor and your General Assemblymen and women have done to you.

THE CENTRIST

“Kick the hubris out of Harrisburg!” -- THE CENTRIST

"It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs. " -- Albert Einstein

Copyright © 2006:
THE CENTRIST”. All Rights Reserved.

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