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It's no big deal, they tell me: The indictment by a state grand jury of 16 McKeesport-area residents --- including a city councilman, a police chief and a retired police lieutenant --- on charges of running video poker machines.

Some of my friends and family members are telling me that the video-poker machine laws are antiquated at best, and hypocritical at worst. After all, the state runs two lottery drawings a day. The casinos in Pittsburgh and Washington County run slot machines. Off-track horse betting is legal in Pennsylvania, too.

But when a private business owner runs the same kind of a machine --- on which they pay an amusement license fee to their local city, borough or township --- it's against the law. Why?

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Besides, who amongst us hasn't bought a raffle ticket, or a strip ticket, or put a couple of bucks into a football pool? After all: Everybody does it. It's no big deal.

Lynn Cullen said as much Friday on her City Paper podcast:

So gambling's bad when Eek and Porky do it, but gambling's practically patriotic when the state's doing it and you're "helping senior citizens"? The state is the biggest runner of gambling and numbers there is, and then they go after these little guys? Talk about a stink!

The hypocrisy! Leave these guys alone! ...

How does the state keep a straight face when on one hand they're doing this, and on the other hand (they're running lotteries)? All of the gambling that "benefits senior citizens" --- do you know how many people have spent their life savings playing the state lottery? ...

Who doesn't have a numbers runner in their family? ... You have to make your money somewhere ... People are just trying to make ends meet.

So did Colin McNickle of the Tribune-Review:

The ultimate question surrounding the crackdown is this: Who'd these poor schmucks honk off? Perhaps somebody wasn't getting his or her cut? Or maybe it's just the state, perturbed that its organized racket is being diluted? ...

State-sanctioned gambling --- think the lottery, casinos and glue-trotter tracks --- is virtuous but video poker machines with knock-off switches are a vice, is that it?

Lynn Cullen (liberal) and Colin McNickle (conservative) are in complete agreement on the stupidity of video-poker machine enforcement! Speaking of gambling, I never would have bet that those two would agree on anything.

Anyway, that's one side of the argument, and it's not completely off-base. I tend to feel about video poker the same way I feel about marijuana: Legalize it and then tax the hell out of it.

If video poker is a crime, it's pretty close to a victimless crime. No one is forced to gamble --- in fact, people want to play. I say, let 'em play ... legally.

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On the other hand, here's what the Tribune-Review's sister paper, the Valley Independent, editorialized back in 2001, when District Justice Ronald Amati of Monongahela was implicated in a video poker ring:

A surprising number of residents have told us they believe Amati was somehow railroaded. To them, it also was just a couple poker machines --- just gambling. To many, it just is not a big deal.

Despite the fact that Pennsylvania runs its own --- legal --- lottery operation, video poker gambling, unsanctioned sports betting and underground numbers games are expressly illegal.

We have laws, and we have to live by them. If laws are intolerable, then each citizen has the right to lobby elected representatives to change them. If the outcry is great enough, and if elected officials do not appropriately respond, then the electorate can solve such problems at the polls.

That is why it is so important to put the right people in office and to watch them closely after they are elected. Because one Amati is too many.

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There's the other side, and with respect, I think I agree with the Valley Independent's 2001 take on this. The video poker laws are stupid. Tavern and restaurant owners should get the state legislature to change them. Flagrantly doing an end-run around them isn't the answer.

It's kind of like speed limit laws: We all break them. But it's one thing to drift a few miles over the speed limit. You probably won't get caught. It's another to drag race on the highway in front of the state police barracks. Then, you're going to start attracting attention.

Especially if you're one of the people responsible for setting speed limits and enforcing them. If you don't have any respect for your own laws, why should I? Why should a kid who's thinking about driving without a license or selling a little bit of dope have any respect for those particular laws? After all, it's no big deal. Everyone does it.

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A judge in New York, disturbed at the flimsiness of the cases that prosecutors presented to grand juries, famously declared that the district attorney could "indict a ham sandwich." In other words, a grand jury indictment doesn't necessarily require much evidence. That's my way of saying anyone indicted is innocent until proven guilty.

Nevertheless, here's something else that's been much on my mind these past few days. Two years ago, I was added (over my loud protests, because I didn't want something else to do) to the International Village Committee.

Two of the people indicted last week are on the same committee. I know one of them, and I like him: He's done a lot of good in the community.

Over the years, I've heard a lot of gossip about people stealing from International Village. I figure it's just that: Gossip. But when two people involved in International Village are indicted on racketeering charges --- even if those charges are in your opinion stupid, or flimsy, or might not stand up in court --- does that not give the gossip-mongers some real ammunition to work with?

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If you're going to be a community leader, rightly or wrongly, you are judged much more harshly than the rest of us. You also get to take your lumps in public.

So even though "everyone does it," and it's "no big deal," you don't get to use that privilege, because your actions reflect on the community, and everyone in it.

By the way, that judge who said a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich? Seven years later, he was indicted on extortion, racketeering and blackmail charges, plead guilty, and served 15 months in the federal pen.

I wonder what he said the first time they served a ham sandwich for lunch?

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