Police Continue Penny-Ante Gambling Raids at Big Public Cost
Once again, police have decided the best use of public funds is to operate long-term undercover operations in order to shut down penny-ante gambling setups. This time, West Chester police teamed with officers from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Enforcement Board to stop a heinous ploy by the neighborhood Moose Lodge to run a couple of video slots.
The police squad sent to raid this location filled with dastardly villains actually heavily outnumbered patrons as only fifteen elderly customers were in the bar. As police loaded the four machines seized onto a truck, an indoor shuffleboard game continued, the players possibly unaware they were in the clutches of West Chester's finest.
Officials also grabbed $2000 in cash, which apparently included all the cash in the till from serving drinks, and the bank to run the shift. In order to make the raid seem even a little worthwhile, any money posessed by the house was deemed a gambling profit, no matter how little action the machines really saw.
One customer, being escorted off the premises, had the temerity to shout out a likely truth: that Governor Ed Rendell is pushing for stricter enforcement now that the state has an interest in its own slots.
Sergeant William La Torre argued that people who played the slots were unlikely to win. "In essence, people pump money in and what they're winning back is so minimal."
La Torre did not comment on what players at state-taxed slots might win.
The police have so far left the Veterans of Foreign Wars Lodges alone. After all, those guys have guns, and don't like being pushed around, as they have already fought and risked life and limb to keep their freedoms.
