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The City Council has adopted a plan to create a gambling task force that will include members of various city departments, including the Honolulu Police, Prosecuting Attorney and Planning and Permitting, after finding that criminal law that makes possession of a gambling device only a misdemeanor is inadequate. The goal: Improving coordination between agencies to more aggressively root out gambling operations, using civil and criminal municipal powers.
The move overlaps with a new state law, Act 249, that expands the scope of what’s considered “gambling activity” and can be prosecuted criminally, and also holds landlords responsible if they make properties available for gambling.