Casino gambling at fraternal clubs

It’s inevitable that gambling expansion will be a major item when the West Virginia Legislature meets next month. Given the results of the election last month, it may be inevitable that the state’s four racetrack casinos will get the table games they have long wanted.

But there’s a new twist in that effort. According to an article carried by The Associated Press, fraternal clubs in West Virginia want a piece of the action, too. They want to be able to offer the same games the casinos will have.

Why not? Why should the guys at the Elks, VFW, American Legion and the Eagles, among others have to drive to Cross Lanes to play poker legally? Why can’t they run their own roulette tables? Fraternal groups and others have run bingo games for years. What’s a little roulette among friends and club members?

Other than the fact it would cut into the take of the racetrack casinos, and that just cannot be allowed from either the tracks’ point of view or from the state tax collectors’.

The genie is out of the bottle, and it’s not going back in. If table games are inevitable, then everyone will want a piece of the action. The Huntington area has had several chances for this sort of thing, but it has turned it down each time. And it still probably isn’t a good idea. But if Kanawha County gets poker, blackjack, roulette and other games of skill and chance, other places in this part of West Virginia will want the same.

And really, who can blame them?