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gamble. With the assistance of millions of
•our most law-abiding citizens, illegal gam-
bling has become the backbone of or-
ganized crime in America today. That back-
bone appears to be unbreakable. Prohibition
profits were meager compared to the gam-
bling profits of today. The whys are baffling
and the over-all picture exhibits little logic.
Many factors explain why we have such
a frustrating situation. Included are:
One, public participation in illegal gam-
bling;
Two, public indifference to the by-prod-
ucts of illegal gambling;
Three, inadequate laws and inadequate
enforcement machinery ;
Four, illegal gambling,- cases demand a
lengthy period of surveillance before search
and seizure warrants can be obtained.
It is completely impossible for the fed-
eral or local police to combat, consistently,
all of the illegal gambling in any area
over a period of time. The reason is lack
of personnel for enforcing this type of
misdemeanor.
As general counsel to the Maryland
Crime Investigating Commission for the
past five years, I have worked closely with
that agency's Executive Director, Alvin
Zumbrun, and I agree with his public state-
ment that "gambling in moderation is not
injurious ii? the racketeers are not keeping
the profits and illegal gambling has be-
come one of the biggest businesses in Mary-
land today. The outlets provided by the
illegal gambling for the propensity of
people to gamble are more readily avail-
able than those which the lawmakers have
provided."
I do not think that you, fellow delegates,
or I should place ourselves in such a holy
position as to think we must protect the
Maryland citizens from our elected legis-
lative representatives.
THE CHAIRMAN: Your time has ex-
pired, Delegate Finch.
DELEGATE FINCH: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I yield four
minutes to Delegate Chabot.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Mr. Chairman,
in New York City budding politicians have
been told for many years they should find
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something they can praise about Israel,
something they can praise about Italy,
something they can praise about Ireland.
For a while I thought we were going off
on that tangent here. Since all three of
those states have lotteries I am supposed
to stake what little future I have in my
hand condemning the lottery nevertheless.
Mr. Chairman, the minority have posed
the question we often heard on this floor.
Is the matter before us one of constitu-
tional importance? This one sentence of a
dozen words we have before us is a limita-
tion upon the power of the General As-
sembly and at every level of government
in the State. Without this limitation, the
power of the General Assembly and the
power of twenty-four counties would be
sufficient to permit them to authorize what
amounts to a regressive tax. This pro-
vision before us restricts these powers. It
is clear then that the recommendation of
the Committee on State Finance performs
a constitutional function. It is not exhorta-
tory.
Is the lottery so outmoded a danger that
we no longer have to guard against it in
our Constitution? Regrettably, no. For many
years a New York City Republican Con-
gressman has been urging federal lotteries.
New York State has joined New Hamp-
shire in deluding the taxpayers by creating
state lotteries. The siren song of painless
taxes is now being sounded even here as
one of our delegates so ably pointed out.
The danger of the state government or
county government creating the lottery
should not be discounted too much. It is
clear then that the recommendation of the
Committee on State Finance guards against
a potentially real danger.
Mr. Chairman, we have been told the
legislature ought to remain free to handle
this matter. Yet all through this constitu-
tion we have been picking and choosing
those areas in which we felt the legislature
would be too tempted to do something that
we felt was improper. In those areas which
we felt would offer too great temptations
we have limited their powers to put a limit
on their size. We put a limit upon their
power to raise their salaries. We put a
limit on their sessions. We put a limit on
their power to affect the structure of the
executive branch, limit on their power
over the judicial branch and a limit on
their power to redistrict themselves.
We have been asked by the minority to
disregard our own history of more than a
century on this matter. We have been told
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