May 13, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — As many states through the U.S.A. struggle with how to legalize and regulate online gambling (read more about that here), some of the more conservative states are debating the idea of whether or not to legalize gambling in any shape or form.
South Carolina, a conservative state on the Southern Atlantic coast, has been in the news in recent months for controversy revolving around the haphazard application of its archaic, 207-year-old law outlawing all form of gambling “with cards or dice”. That means that South Carolinians cannot play poker even in the privacy of their own home, resulting in some awkward and seemingly unfair arrests over the course of the past year. Technically read, the law even prohibits citizens from playing traditional board games like "Monopoly".
New legislation introduced into the state’s congress yesterday seeks to overturn this ban. The intent of the bills, according to senators, is to let people play games like Bridge or low-stakes poker with family and friends, while still ruling out large-scale gambling like video poker.
The legislation certainly doesn’t face an easy challenge. Even considering the limited nature of the proposed changes, a furious debate is being waged in the state on both sites of the issue.
And, even if passed, the bill would not put the state anywhere near a progressive attitude regarding poker. Still, it’s encouraging to see that even the most conservative U.S. states are being forced to rethink their gambling laws. The legalization of land-based, low-stakes poker games in South Carolina is just another link in the chain that leads to fully legalized online gambling all throughout the U.S.