Sunday, March 18, 2007

We at the Echo assume most of you are watching the NCAA men's basketball
tournament with some pecuniary interest. We've arranged our brackets,
entered our pools, made our speculations. Many offices similar to ours have
even have bet some small amount of cash, since without something riding on
the outcome, few would be able to muster much appetite for the opening
rounds. But, we hasten to add in print, this is illegal. Like speeding or
underage drinking. Which leads to an odd disjunction in the public
discourse. We all know the brackets offered by places like ESPN and even the
Ann Arbor News would not be nearly as popular if the ubiquitous office pools
didn't exist. And yet, we have to keep up the legal fiction of law-abiding,
lest we be subject to capricious law-enforcement whims up to the tune of
$1,000. Which is why we support the legislation proposed by State
Representative Kim Meltzer (R-Clinton Township), which would decriminalize
small office pools. While we understand some of the appeal of office pools
is the feeling of just barely breaking the law, an illicity that can add to
the furtive joy of slipping sheets around the cubicles, but a law so widely
flouted obviously no longer represents the will of the people. Indeed, the
frequent experience of lawbreaking may discourage respect for other laws.
One of the reasons this proposal earns our support is it is limited.
Michigan does have a gambling problem, and the legal fiction of "Native
Americans" running casinos that act more as enablers of addiction than
legitimate industry doesn't win any real support here. But office pools are
more like poker (another legal gray area recently made mainstream) than
slots, and while there is a potential for abuse, it's mitigated by the
limited nature of the participation and the fact the NCAA basketball
tournament comes but once a year (though we suppose any office truly
motivated could create a pool on the NCAA gymnastics tourney too). We
applaud this recognition by lawmakers that when an activity harms very few
and is practiced widely there should be no real justification for the
intervention of the state. We can only hope this moment of clarity extends
further in the statehouse to other harmless entertainments currently
prohibited, and we hope this legislation is passed in time for next year's
tourney.