EDITORIAL
You bet your life gambling is scary

Wednesday's Mafiaesque Pali Golf Course shooting has exposed the violent underbelly of illegal gambling in Ho-nolulu.

"I'm hoping it's an isolated incident," said city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle. "But clearly, strong-arming, violence, power grabs — those come with gambling in any form."

The parking lot shootout that left two men dead was the result of a turf war between security forces that provide protection for illegal gambling houses, according to a police source familiar with the investigation.

Turns out there are at least a half-dozen illegal gambling houses on O'ahu.

The Pali Golf Course shooting is related to a feud between two factions that includes a brawl at a Young Street gambling house last July, police say.

In that case, two men were charged with assault for hitting two security guards with bats and chairs and stabbing one of them repeatedly.

What is this, "The Sopranos"?

If police know about these illegal gaming houses, then why haven't they shut them down?

Carlisle says it's not that authorities don't want to crack down on illegal gambling, but that the industry is hard to infiltrate. Moreover, he says, the courts don't make it easy to use such surveillance tools as electronic eavesdropping.

For the most part, the illegal gambling industry has kept a low profile. But once in a while, disputes become fatal. A decade ago, Russell Cullen shot a couple in a downtown parking garage in a dispute over gambling rights in the Chinatown area. Robin Saya was wounded and his girlfriend, Carol Ching, died.

Some proponents of legalized gambling say crime would be reduced if gambling were legalized. But that's not necessarily the case.

William Jahoda, a former Chicago-area Mafia gambling director, testified before members of Congress in 1995 that legalized gambling has been a boon to mob gambling operations: "Any new form or expansion of existing state-controlled licensed gambling always increased our market share," he said.

Hawai'i may not have legalized gambling, but it has earned a reputation among crime pundits as the favored way-station of the Japanese mafia, or yakuza, who blend in easily in the Islands. Not only do they deal in prostitution and gambling, but they are also said to move crystal methamphetamine and firearms between the Mainland and Japan.

If anything, the Pali Golf Course shooting serves as a wake-up call that Hawai'i is far from immune to gambling that begets bloodshed. Whether it's legalized or not, gambling breeds addiction, bankruptcy, corruption, turf wars and violence. And who needs more of that?