Hawaii Slots

Gambling in Hawaii

Visitors flock to the Aloha State as a form of escape from mundane and fast-paced city life. The tropical weather and laidback attitude of the residents make it more inviting to relax and forget the troubles you might have left behind. The islands of Hawaii are lined with resorts and hotels, and they attract not only Americans. Hawaii has been considered a top tourist destination even for foreigners.

In fact, tourism is considered the main industry of the State. Ironically, in most states, tourism and legalized gambling go hand in hand; in Hawaii, gambling is still completely prohibited. It is one of the only two states in the country where there is no form of legal gambling allowed. Any attempts made to slowly assimilate games of chance in any of the hotels or bars in the state have been met with opposition.

In Hawaii an activity is considered gambling when the following conditions are met: wagering a valuable item, the game involves an element of chance, and a certain form of reward is received when wagered correctly. This basically rules out any form of gambling. Consider the popular game of bingo. Since the game involves a chance of getting the pattern from the card, one has wagered with cash, and since getting that pattern will reward the player (with cash as well), it is considered a form gambling and therefore illegal.

The same formula is given to raffles and lottery. Picking a name or set of numbers involves chance, and one receives a reward (the jackpot) if your name is picked or the number sequence in the ticket you purchased matches. One might say that sending your name and details may not constitute "something of value," but the fact that chance determines the outcome make it a form of gambling.

Thus, no Vegas-style casinos accompany hotel projects in the island. Even small nightclubs or bars are not permitted to carry slot machines or poker games. If one is caught with gambling records or is promoting gambling, he or she can be charged criminally. Bookmaking is also not legal.

There are also certain parties who were interested in putting casinos on board ships, but the legislature and the people were against it as well.

The proponents of gambling for the state says it will give an added boost to the tourism industry and may even be a separate industry once it takes off. Anti-gambling groups, however, are afraid of the adverse effects gambling may bring to the economy. They argue that for casinos to be profitable, it will simply not rely on the tourists but on the residents to play as well. This, they believe, will only realign the spending habits of the locals, which could only damage their personal finance.

The silver lining in this story is that with all the prohibitions, the state does allow social gambling. For social gambling to be legal, conditions must also be met. All players must be on equal terms, they do not receive anything else other than their winnings, and third party stands to gain benefit from the game. Players must also be at the age of majority, which is 18.