Palmetto Public Square

Gambling Law in South Carolina:
An Analysis of National Opinion and the South Carolina Code of Law

by Jacob Davis

Enforcement in the Spotlight

It was big news in April 2006 when Mt. Pleasant police cited 22 people after breaking up a high-stakes poker game in what papers called a “raid.”[1] In April 2008, it even made the news in Columbia when Hanahan police raided another underground game, citing an assistant prosecutor and seizing more than $40,000.[2] This kind of strict law enforcement, of laws that some say “go too far,”[3] has helped prompt state legislators to push for a loosening of gambling restrictions in South Carolina.

After a long and bitter fight to ban video poker, and perhaps an even uglier battle to establish a state “Education Lottery,” South Carolina citizens could be forgiven for shouting “Enough already!” to arguments over legalized gambling.  Unfortunately, the recent well-publicized “raids” on “underground” poker games have brought the issue back to the forefront.  Scarcely does an article appear in the newspapers (or online for that matter) without including the old saw that South Carolina law prohibits “playing Monopoly at [the] kitchen table.”[4] Never mind that it probably doesn’t, or that no evidence exists that anyone has ever even been ticketed for something so preposterous.  Even the South Carolina Attorney General’s office is forced to joke that, “Candyland…is safe” in South Carolina.[5] Read more…

by Bill Connor, guest blogger
The often controversial Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston recently announced that he will run for governor in 2010 on a platform centered on bringing back video poker.

Sen. Ford has said that his gubernatorial bid would be different because he believes bringing back and taxing video poker will provide South Carolina with the money it needs to serve the state’s neediest while keeping taxes low.

Sen. Ford claims video poker will solve South Carolina’s woeful financial situation, generating $750 million by taxing the industry that was outlawed here nearly a decade ago. After reviewing Sen. Ford’s appeal for video poker, I had to ask myself: How can a State Senator be so passionate about a quick, yet ultimately detrimental, short-term gimmick? Leadership means looking beyond the “now” of the superficial gains to the “future” of second and third order effects. This includes economic leadership. 

As Henry Hazlitt put it best: “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy.”

A true leader will not stay lost in a forest, looking to cut down the next tree to claim “progress.” A true leader climbs a tree to see the whole forest, develops a vision for getting out, and leads people toward that long-term vision. 

Read more…

A quick review of the prefile list for 2009 reveals some great ideas…and some really poor ones.

Part I: The Bad

Every other year about this time, legislators “prefile” bills. That means they put a few ideas in the hopper in advance of the legislature’s actual meeting so they will have some work to do the first few weeks of the session.

A Senator from Charleston gets the prize this year for really bad proposals. His list of prefiles reads like a propaganda tract for those who want to radically change South Carolina’s family friendly culture.

South Carolina would be a very different place if the Senator from District 42 were to get his way:

• People of the same gender would be getting married (“civil unions”);
• Hotels, hospitals and employers would be giving special protection based on a person’s “actual or perceived” sexual identity;
  video poker would back on every corner;
• Riverboat casinos would operate along the coast; and
• Local governments would be prevented from restricting Sunday alcohol sales.

You can be assured that Palmetto Family Council and our legislative action arm, Palmetto Family Alliance will be watching these bills closely.

If any of this legislation shows any sign of life at all, we will contact you immediately with an email like the one at the top of this post called “Call to Action.” Please watch for it.

Together, we can keep South Carolina the best place in the world to live and raise a family!

P.S. To stand with us through your financial partnership as we continue the legislative battle for truth, you can make a donation HERE.

Note: To be fair, in the Senator’s world there would also be no baggy pants, no public profanity, sex offenders would be monitored via GPS, and car title lending would be regulated. Our analysis here is on the preponderance of his oeuvre.