“We don’t consider it gambling at all . . .
If you win you win, if you lose you lose.”
Jan Beach, Co-owner of the Bucktail Lodge
This story has all the makings of a big city crime drama: illicit activity, perps, informant ratting out the perps, and a sheriff’s raid. But this didn’t happen in the big city; it happened in Small Town, America, so there must be a twist, right? Right.
The crime is real: gambling. But it’s not what you might expect. Not poker or dice or horse racing. Nope, it’s mouse racing. Yep, mouse racing.
Last week sheriffs raided the Bucktail Lodge in Danville, Iowa (population 865) after getting tipped off that illegal betting was taking place. What they found were Plexiglass mouse tracks set up along the back wall by the pool tables. The owners of the Bucktail Lodge have been charged with illegal gambling. They say it isn’t gambling at all—just folks having fun putting down a buck or two on their favorite rodent and some winning, some losing.
The Sheriffs Department disagrees. They’re not done nosing around and say they could file additional charges. The owners of the Bucktail Lodge say they’ll go to court to keep their mice running. I don’t know about you, but it sounds like a bit of cat and mouse to me.
Read the Article ® Iowa bar owners ticketed over illegal mouse racing
1 comment:
Earlier today the original source of this story, WQAD, had a video of the "Rat Race" story on their website. However, I noticed they took down the video. Therefore, I changed "Watch the Video" to "Read the Article." Sorry about that. Hopefully WQAD will put the video back up. The owners of Bucktail Lodge are right -- it was fun to watch the mice racing!
Post a Comment