Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!sol!yamauchi From: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Mir Sweepstakes Organizers Arrested Message-ID: Date: 6 Feb 91 22:41:17 GMT Sender: news@cs.rochester.edu (Usenet news) Organization: University of Rochester Lines: 22 According to a UPI story on Clarinet (clari.tw.space), the organizers of the Mir Sweepstakes were arrested today (2/6) and charged with running an illegal lottery by the local DA. This is a felony charge which carries a penalty of 2-10 years in prison. There is a truly mind-boggling level of hypocrisy involved when state governments can put people in jail for "promoting gambling" through lotteries at the same time that state governments themselves are running lotteries. I don't know whether Texas has a state lottery, but New York does -- maybe someone should arrest Cuomo and toss him in jail... It's sadly ironic that the project to launch Americans on a Soviet rocket was not stopped by the totalitarian oppression of the Soviet government, but by the that of American state and local governments. -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Department of Computer Science _______________________________________________________________________________