news-record.com

State Rep. Earl Jones has a solution to North Carolina's exasperating problem of video poker: Legalize it.

That's the wrong remedy, but at least the Greensboro Democrat makes one rational point. It's hypocrisy, he says, for the state to run a lottery but ban other forms of gambling.

Not only is the state guilty of hypocrisy, it also forfeits the moral high ground in setting policy based on the supposed evils of wagering. State law prohibits video poker because it's a racket that feeds on the gullibility of people who ought to do something better with their money. So is the state lottery. The public knows the state isn't opposed to gambling on principle but only depending on who profits from it.

Jones' proposal is doomed to fail because it would break the state's monopoly on gambling outside Cherokee's casino.

Despite the hypocrisy, which we'll all have to live with, the state has a compelling interest in prohibiting video poker machines. They induce addictive behavior, and the industry has been associated with crime and political corruption in North Carolina.

Unfortunately, enforcing a ban enacted in 2007 has proved to be difficult. Other forms of video gambling have punched loopholes through the law, and earlier this year a judge ruled the prohibition was illegal because it was applied selectively, excluding the Cherokee reservation. Judge Howard Manning stayed his order pending the state's appeal.

In view of these troubles, it would be easy to give in to Jones' logic. But sound public policy demands a better effort to eradicate an unhealthy influence from society. It's true that people can satisfy their urge to gamble by visiting Cherokee or legal casinos in other states, playing games of chance online and, yes, buying North Carolina lottery tickets. Yet there's good reason to draw a line somewhere. Video poker is over the line.