Susie Barnhill, Howard Pinder, Sr., Howard Pinder, Jr., and Fredi Clarke v. United States

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

This singular appeal is a product of the legal paradox of imposing federal excise taxes on business activities regarded as criminal in most states.

Four professional gamblers pleaded guilty to evading federal gambling taxes. 1 The district judge offered the defendants the choice between a jail sentence and probation carrying a condition that they give up gambling. 2 They chose probation. Now, however, they are unhappy with what to them in retrospect seems to have been Hobson's choice. They appeal, attacking as an abuse of judicial discretion the probationary condition…