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State senators heard passionate arguments Monday night on both sides of the issue of updating South Carolina’s 1802 anti-gambling law, with American Legion members lining up against Baptist preachers over whether raffles and private poker games should be allowed.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee didn’t hold back on making their opinions known, either. One tried, for example, to convince a Bob Jones University professor that he was "trying to have it both ways" by denouncing all gambling while drawing a salary that is funded, in part, by scholarship money derived 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."
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 a change in the state Constitution that would allow nonprofit organizations to hold raffles.
The state commander of the American Legion said the organization’s fundraising ability "has come to a complete halt" since it was told two years ago that it couldn’t run raffles anymore.
However, Rudy Gray, president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of Utica Baptist Church in Seneca, said allowing lotteries and such things as "casino nights" would give inroads to organized gambling operations.
Source: Greenville News, by Ron Barnett, March 30, 2009
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee didn’t hold back on making their opinions known, either. One tried, for example, to convince a Bob Jones University professor that he was "trying to have it both ways" by denouncing all gambling while drawing a salary that is funded, in part, by scholarship money derived 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."
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 a change in the state Constitution that would allow nonprofit organizations to hold raffles.
The state commander of the American Legion said the organization’s fundraising ability "has come to a complete halt" since it was told two years ago that it couldn’t run raffles anymore.
However, Rudy Gray, president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of Utica Baptist Church in Seneca, said allowing lotteries and such things as "casino nights" would give inroads to organized gambling operations.
Source: Greenville News, by Ron Barnett, March 30, 2009
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