It made little sense for Oregon authorities to swoop down on the Alpine Tavern and tell the folks there that they can't play low-stakes poker, as an Oregon State Police trooper assigned to the Oregon Lottery recently did, shutting down the Wednesday night game after its third week. It's especially silly when you take a harder look at the legal justification.

According to Chuck Bauman, a spokesman for the lottery, Benton County has no ordinance related to social gaming that says it's OK, the way that Corvallis and Eugene do. So, county residents are subject to the Oregon Criminal Code, which holds that playing poker involving wagers in public is illegal.

Which brings us to the larger question: Say what?

So, the state says no poker, unless cities and counties say yes, in which case the state has no further objection, and it's all OK.

The state's involvement in this matter of a little small-town poker game has nothing to do with any business agreement it has with the Alpine Tavern, Bauman said. The lottery became involved only because pay-to-play poker at the tavern was illegal, and officers assigned to the lottery enforce state gaming regulations.

It's apparently no consideration at all that the tavern has video poker machines that generate revenue for the state, or that live poker might cut into that revenue.

Bauman agrees it is "counter-intuitive" that cities and counties can override state authority in this matter, and we haven't yet heard how and why this can be so, but we hope and trust that the Benton County Commissioners will act swiftly to approve social gaming so that the Wednesday night get-together can legally resume.We also hope that the Oregon Legislature will review the matter in 2007, so that Oregon can enable citizens the perfectly reasonable right to get together in public and play a little nickel poker.