Pennsylvania's Top Cop Warns That Super Bowl Pools Are Illegal
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- Despite the claims of a Pennsylvania state senator, the state police commissioner says those Super Bowl pools run by volunteer clubs are still illegal -- and he says the law will be enforced this Sunday.
This week, state senator Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton/ Lehigh/ Monroe Counties) took to the Senate floor to complain bitterly that state police are flouting a new state law:
"The department recently disclosed to my office that despite what Pennsylvania's Small Games of Chance Law clearly allows, the state police will raid and cite volunteer clubs that offer harmless Super Bowl pools this Sunday," she said.
State Police commissioner Frank Noonan admits that the overall contention is true.
"Obviously we wouldn't disclose to anyone if we were going to be conducting raids, but actually what we're doing is just the normal enforcement that we normally do as far as clubs that have liquor licenses and things such as that," he tells KYW Newsradio.
And Noonan says that normal enforcement means state police and administration lawyers have determined that under federal law those Super Bowl pools are still illegal.
