Recently, Dallas police staged a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post. Here’s a video from Reason.tv hosted by Drew Carey, that looks into the raid and the subsequent closure of the post.
“Poker is about as American as baseball and apple pie,” Carey says in the Reason.tv video. “It was born here in America. Mark Twain loved it. He’s a great American. Until recently, Supreme Court justices had a monthly game. They’re great Americans. You’d think playing poker in a VFW hall would be about as American as anything you could do.”
“This story highlights the hypocrisy that surrounds gambling in this country,” said Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.tv. “States will gladly take your hard-earned money if you want to play the government’s lottery. But if you sit down with some veterans to play Texas hold ’em you may end up with cops, in full riot gear, busting down your door. No one gets hurt when consenting adults sit down for a game of cards. And there’s no reason for the government to get involved.”
The busted poker players have a court date on December 5, 2007.
