Idaho law currently makes it a misdemeanor for law enforcement officers or prosecutors who know about unlawful gambling to fail to prosecute it, and "the way gambling is defined in the code, it covers your mother-in-law's football pool," Rep. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, told the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon. Law enforcement and prosecutors generally have more discretion than that, said Burgoyne, a lawyer, so he proposed legislation to eliminate the clause. His bill, HB 422, won unanimous support from the committee this afternoon, and now heads to the full House.

Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, said he had some experience with the law when he was a deputy prosecutor in Valley County, and he researched its history. "It came into existence when there was widespread illegal gambling in the state of Idaho that was being routinely ignored by law enforcement," Killen said. "It probably was appropriate at the time it was passed - I don't think it's the case any longer. ... I want them to use reason, I want them to exercise judgment."

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