Protect the poker industry

The video poker industry is the number one robbery victim in the CNMI today. Whenever drug addicts or other criminals need money to finance their sordid activities, they usually rob video poker arcades. Notice that they don’t rob gas stations, hotel front desks, nightclubs or other establishments. They almost invariably rob poker arcades–the robbery victim of choice.

If robbers devoted more of their time toward robbing churches or hotels, there would, no doubt, be more community outrage. The Department of Public Safety would be under greater pressure to put a stop to the spate of robberies. (The DPS certainly has not done enough to solve this recurring poker industry problem.

As the situation stands now, hardly anyone is visibly upset by the almost constant victimization of the video poker arcade industry. Robbing a poker parlor, it seems, is almost like raping a harlot: Sure, it’s bad, but not nearly as bad as assaulting a virtuous woman.

It is therefore no surprise that the criminals are not the only ones robbing the video poker industry. The government has been getting into the act as well. Witness, for example, the tremendous rise in poker machine licensing fees, which has far surpassed the annual rate of inflation. The state, for instance, has forced the industry to cough up as much as $10,000 per video poker machine–an exorbitant amount completely beyond all bounds of reasonable justification.

Bear in mind that the poker arcade industry is a legitimate business concern. It provides valuable tax revenues. It serves as a legitimate recreational outlet for many individuals eager for entertainment and amusement. It fulfills a market demand. Many local land owners benefit directly from the rental fees collected as a result of poker room operations.

While the multiplier effects of the poker industry may be somewhat diminished, this is probably more than offset by poker machine earnings retention. Many foreigners, for example, are regular poker arcade customers, which means that money that might have normally been repatriated abroad remains in the Commonwealth–courtesy of the poker machines’ earnings retention factor.

Some deranged lunatics will probably argue that poker arcades deserve to be robbed, because they themselves rob people. Such lunatics should be dismissed entirely. They don’t even know the difference between outright forcible robbery and a voluntary market transaction.

It is high time more people stand up more forcefully for the heavily victimized poker industry. Protect the poker industry. Stop the robberies. Increase the criminal penalties for poker room robberies, and get the government itself out of the robbery act.