On any given night on Oahu, the Honolulu Police Department’s Narcotics and Vice Division is keeping tabs on dozens of illicit gambling rooms scattered across the island in abandoned storefronts, warehouses and homes.
That’s often all the authorities can do. Gambling in any form is illegal in Hawaii, but local police have few tools to crack down on the increasingly common backroom operations that provide access to slot machines and table games.
An investigation into just one game room can take weeks while officers gather enough evidence for a judge to sign a search warrant for a raid.
This article is the second of a series looking at whether gambling should be legal in Hawaii.
