Yale Daily News

perhaps the YDN could dig a little further and explore who pushed for this law and what purpose it serves. is this a law that is actually useful?

@#1: yes. the law is very useful--without it, the division of special revenue might have nothing to do...

It was passed in 2003 as an attempt to prevent the opening of new casinos in the state, apparently by removing some of the loopholes in state law that allowed the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun to exist. I guess the idea was that because the state permit some casino-style gambling, they couldn't selectively bar new casinos from opening. I assume that it was pushed for by the moralizing set who believe gambling is evil, but I wouldn't be surprised if the existing casinos had a hand in it as well.

Why don't they go back and prosecute the organizers of last year's event, and continue going back as far as the statute of limitations allows? Start putting some university officials in jail on ridiculous charges, then senselessness of this law will be brought to the light of day. We need to start demanding common sense in legislation.

How on Earth did this ridiculous, radical law get passed in Connecticut?! I'd expect this in Oklahoma, but not here.

Furthermore, why is this law being enforced? Agencies and police organizations have broad discretion on the enforcement of laws - this is why kids don't get arrested for trespassing when walking through their neighbors yard, why we (normally) don't get stopped for jaywalking (Yale got weird on this one once), and why men don't get arrested for kissing their wives on Sunday (yes, this is illegal in Hartford).

Legislators: please amend this law to allow benign no-money-exchanged events. What's next - no casino movies so that the minds of our youths aren't corrupted?

Enforcers: Stop wasting your time and my taxpayer dollars at the expense of my liberty to enjoy myself as I choose by enforcing this useless provision.

Yale/ACLU: Please test this in the courts.

I wish they'd find some laws that would prohibit SWAY.

These are hardened criminals. They must be stopped.

#6: I agree completely, although even if they did, our left-wing courts almost certainly would find a way to interpret this law as unconstitutional...

But more seriously, liberals are going way too far in now banning fake casino games. I don't agree with most restrictions on gambling, but I can at least understand their rationale. But what is the reason for banning gambling games where no real money is involved?

Well - Yale isn't above the law, even an Law school alum it helm of the enforcing authority. That's good to know.

If someone knows a law student, have him/her look up the statutes. According to the table of states's laws in this article ( http://law.jrank.org/pages/11847/Gambling.html ), Connecticut allows "Las Vegas" nights for charitable organizations so there must be some exception to the possession of gambling devices applicable to those. You might need to check the definition of charitable organizations to see if a university qualifies and if not create one and pick a charity for next year's event. I have no doubt it can be done if you give it enough lead time to discover and avoid the pitfalls.

For some background on the Connecticut law, see this article by a Whittier Law School professor (scroll down to the paragraph on Connecticut): http://www.gamblingandthelaw.com/status.html

I need to correct my last post, which is not up yet for me to read, so I'm going by memory. The Division of Special Revenue website has this FAQ section:

"How does the repeal of the Games of Chance Act effect public or nonpublic secondary schools, or a group of parents of students attending such a school, or of the teachers or administrators of such a school that annually hold recreational Las Vegas night events in connection with high school after-graduation or after-prom parties?
The Games of Chance Act governing Las Vegas night events was repealed effective January 7, 2003. Accordingly, nonprofit organizations, including public and nonpublic secondary schools and associated groups of parents or teachers and administrators, are no longer able to conduct Las Vegas night events within the State of Connecticut."

The law prof's article has this little nugget on Connecticut, as of 2003. Ms. Yee might want to see where gambling tax revenues now rank:

"Legal gambling has surpassed corporate income tax to become the third largest source of revenue in the state budget, behind the personal income tax and the sales tax."

Wow -friggin Wow. Did i read that correctly ,that you can't sponsor an event like this if the money is used for charity ? So if you had a contest included it would be okay ? Or something like Bingo