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Washington State
residents furious over new law that makes online
gambling felony
 Beginning today, place
a bet online in the state of Washington and you
could receive the same sentence as a child molester.
Play poker online, you are in as much trouble as a
repeat drunk driving offender.
While this may
sound like something out of a really unbelievable
science fiction film, you might be shocked to
realize we are talking reality here.
Effective June 7 it
becomes a Class C felony to play poker online in the
state of Washington. Players will face a
possible five-year sentence and/or a $10,000 fine
and/or share a jail cell with Peter the Sex Perv.
That's because the new law will put violators in the
same category as child pornagraphers, repeat drunk
drivers, drug dealers and identity thieves.
Governor Christine
Gregoire signed the bill into law in late March.
The bill covers all forms of online wagering
including sports betting and internet poker.
Poker has become one
of the biggest audience draws on television with
various programs seen on nearly every cable station.
Next month's World Series of Poker is expected to
draw in several thousand qualifiers.
Susan Arland, rule
coordinator and press contact for Washington State’s
Gambling Commission, has admitted that the State
will be very unlikely to prosecute players, though
that option is always available. Instead, the
main focus of Washington's Gambling Commission was
to prosecute people running online gambling websites
in her state.
“Not to say we
wouldn’t (prosecute players), but the focus wouldn’t
be on an individual player,” Arland says.
Washington State isn't exactly all about
anti-gambling. Within its borders are 24 tribal
casinos and 94 “house bank” cardrooms, which offer
so-called "legalized poker".
One local player told
Seattle's KIRO 7 he has an internet poker cash card,
tied to a Swiss bank account. He can use it to
withdraw his winnings $1,000 at a time at any ATM.
He said it is not tracible.
"For them to catch me
would be pretty tricky," said Rick, an Internet
gambler. "I mean I'm not gonna obviously do it from
my home IP address."
KIRO 7 offered a
poll on its website Tuesday night asking if online
gambling should be illegal. By 8 PST, some
1229 people had voted and an overwhelming 86%
responded that internet gambling should not be made
illegal.
Local casinos believe
the new law will bring more players into their
clubs, because many won't risk getting caught
online.
It is not known the
impact this will have on internet gambling stocks,
most of which trade on the London Stock Exchange.
Last year's biggest single IPO on the London Stock
Exchange was none other than PartyGaming, which
operates the biggest online poker room, PartyPoker.
And not all state
governors are against online gambling either.
Former Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura
actually endorses an online gambling website,
BetUS.com (See
Web Site Here).
So what should
Washington State residents do so that they can
continue their favorite activity of online gambling?
How about moving to
Oregon or Montana.....or better yet, Canada.
-----
Christopher
Costigan,
www.gambling911.com
Originally
published June 6, 2006 10:52 pm EDT
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