South Carolina families who sit down for a friendly game of Yahtzee on a Saturday night may not be aware that they are exposing their children to illicit criminal activities, but according to South Carolina's current gambling laws, they almost certainly are.

A literal reading of South Carolina's 207 year-old gambling law currently bans "any game with cards or dice," according to a recent article from the Associated Press.

This somewhat embarrassingly antiquated law has some SC lawmakers working to find a more common sense approach to gambling legislation, which would at the very least allow regular folks the right to play nickel/dime poker games around the kitchen table, without fear of government persecution.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell recently introduced a new bill in the State Legislature that will effectively decriminalize social gambling and gambling themed fundraisers in South Carolina. The new bill is meant to begin the process of bringing state laws more up to date, while also helping local churches and charities, whose number of donations have been hit hard recently due to the slowing US economy.

McConnell's new bill basically only seeks to allow home games in which no one takes a rake and no one is shown to have profited from running the game, but even this seemingly minor adjustment may face serious opposition from other state lawmakers who seem to fear opening the gambling door even a crack could potentially allow a whole flood of unforeseen and unwanted pro-gambling consequences.


Story by Mark Anderson