An Internet café owner in the U.S. state of Florida was not guilty of running an illegal gambling business, according to the jury. It was a ruling that will reverberate throughout every state in the nation, as overreaching government was shot down by the people.

Jeaneen Cristante was charged with owning a gambling house – a third-degree felony – and possession of slot machines – a second-degree misdemeanor. According to authorities, her business in Marion County, Florida violated state laws. Her business, Marion Internet Services, which he owned along with her husband, was only open for less than five months before they were arrested and the business had to be closed.

In the Internet café, Cristante also sold phone cards and printing and faxing services. She used electronic sweepstakes to promote the merchandise. Customers could pay for a set amount of time on the phone cards and then play games at the computers where they could win prizes. According to authorities, that was simply a disguised form of offering a gambling service.

After prosecutors presented their case, the jury disagreed and acquitted Cristante of both charges. With a few other Internet café owners in the state facing similar criminal charges, this ruling is sure to be used as case precedent for the defense.

The prosecution, though unable to convince a jury, still believes that they are in the right. Assistant State Attorney Mark Simpson stated that they “lost the battle today, not the war.” Continued aggressive arresting and prosecution of similar cases can be expected. In December, the trial of Jeffrey Reed, the owner of Cyber Zone E Café, is set to begin. He was arrested last year for running what was deemed an illegal gambling business but then set free after a mistrial. Reed then re-opened the Internet café, only to be arrested again.

And here is example number one billion of why governments are stupid, ineffective creatures that do more harm than good. The state of Idaho actually has a law that makes using common sense illegal.

Yes, you read that correctly. Right now it is a misdemeanor for prosecutors or police officers to fail to act on a gambling “crime” that they know is in progress. Sure, we want the law to be enforced, but I have never heard of them being held accountable for not doing so before. This whole issue came up when the police raided a senior center and made arrests because a $20 poker game was being played. The police acted on what common sense says to ignore because failing to do so would be against the law, and they took an oath to uphold that law.

People should never knowingly break the law, but it is necessary for the police and prosecutors to use discretion in the enforcement of those laws. How would our society be if the police ticketed everyone who jaywalked, rode a bicycle on the wrong side of the road, or drove one mile-per-hour over the speed limit? Common sense says to focus on the bigger crimes and when it comes to the smaller ones, use your own judgment to determine whether or not it is worth your time.

Luckily, due in part to arrests like the senior center incident, lawmakers in Idaho have changed their minds. Yesterday, Governor Butch Otter (yes, that’s his name) signed a bill into law that allows law enforcement agencies to use their discretion in such cases. The law will go into effect on July 1. From that time on, the police will not be committing a crime if they decide not to haul grandma into jail for betting $5 on a square in the office Super Bowl pool.

The original law came into existence because once upon a time there was rampant illegal gambling going on in Idaho and the authorities were ignoring it. However, time and again we have seen that increasingly restrictive and specific laws usually end up doing away with common sense. In fact, if we just followed common sense, there wouldn’t be need for very many laws at all. After all, do we need a law saying you can’t steal someone else’s property? Obviously that’s bad!

But I digress. The new law is a victory for anyone who favors common sense over Draconian rule. Sense, of course, isn’t all that common, especially in government, so it’s nice to see it prevail on these rare occasions. Now they just need to consider whether or not it’s common sense to let people gamble with their own money.