Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is coming for the things that make your sketchy neighborhood c-store so sketchy. The state’s highest law enforcement officer says illegal gambling machines, 7-0H kratom derivatives, and illegal cannabis are all in her sights this summer. She calls it “the Vice Squad,” with the vices in its crosshairs being ones that didn’t exist even a decade ago and until now have thrived in a legal gray area.
For Hanaway, it began with unlicensed gaming machines, which were found to be illegal after a lengthy civil trial brought by private companies last year. Her office moved swiftly to shut down the machines, which at their peak numbered around 25,000 in the state and were ubiquitous in gas stations and convenience stores. Now, she says, only an estimated 7,000 are operational.
When it comes to targeting illegal gambling, she says she’s not on any sort of anti-gambling moral crusade. “When I found out it was a billion dollar industry, my real concern was that if you can make this much money in an illegal industry, basically just flaunting law enforcement, we’ll get real organized crime fighting over these pots [of revenue],” she says…