GREENVILLE GAMBLING FORUM GETS HEATED, HILARITY ENSUES

Buried amidst the confusion of a busy week in South Carolina news was a Senate forum held in Greenville Monday night to discuss a change in the state’s archaic gambling laws.

At issue were two proposals that would legalize civic forms of gambling — most notable, card and dice games in private homes and charity raffles. Also at issue was the fact that I just wrote that sentence in the year 2009 about a place in America.

Anyway, believe it or not, folks inside the Bob Jones belt got pretty heated. Go figure.

From the G-Vegas News:

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee didn’t hold back, either. One tried, for example, to convince a Bob Jones University professor he was “trying to have it both ways” by denouncing all gambling while drawing a salary that is funded, in part, by scholarship money from the state lottery.

Committee Chairman Robert Ford, D-Charleston, set the tone for the night by announcing, “I guess since we’re in Greenville, we need to start with a short prayer. We didn’t do that in Charleston.”

He later said he was joking, but some in the audience took offense.

Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Columbia, described playing the stock market and kiddie amusement park games that pay off in tickets redeemed for prizes as forms of gambling. [...]

Two changes have been proposed to the state’s gambling laws. One would make it legal to gamble at home while keeping it against the law to have gambling houses. The other calls for changing the state Constitution to allow nonprofit groups to hold raffles. The state commander of the American Legion said his group’s fundraising ability “has come to a complete halt” since it was told two years ago it couldn’t run raffles anymore.

I have to hand it to Ford, that was a pretty funny line.

I also have to hand it to those folks in Greenville who are so regressive that they would vigorously defend a 207-year-old law than bans me from playing Monopoly. Seriously… I’m sure it’s not easy being stuck in the stone age.

Bringing the comic relief on the matter was the popular sports blog “With Leather,” which noted, “Yes, raffles are illegal in South Carolina, presumably along with the internet, cable television, and any device that emits artificially light.”

Also bringing comic relief? The self-proclaimed libertarian blog FITSNews.

For some reason, FITSNews is ditching the obvious libertarian response to a bill that allows police to raid the homes of private citizens for playing Bridge. Yes, police raids.

Way to represent your “cause,” FITS.