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WA Law: 5 Years in Prison for Gambling Online
tpoker writes "Online gambling has been an ongoing legal issue for the federal government, but Washington State has recently decided to take matters into their own hands. The Seattle PI reports, 'Beginning next month [June 7th], Washington residents who play poker or make other types of wagers on the Internet will be committing a Class C felony, equivalent under the law to possessing child pornography, threatening the governor or torturing an animal. Although the head of the state Gambling Commission says it is unlikely that individual online gamblers will be targeted for arrest, the new law carries stiff penalties: as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.'"
When will people learn that you can't legislate away social problems?
Pardon me, but what the hell is the point of this law if "it is unlikely that individual online gamblers will be targeted for arrest"? Selective enforcement... for the win!
Most of the gambling houses are offshore, and the state doesn't get its cut.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
So much more liberal and right-thinking than those evil Islamic theocracies of the Middle East.
Keep on shining the torch of liberty into the darkest corners of the earth, now, won't you?
Amazing how the government can find the time and manpower to enforce crap laws like this when tax revenues are on the line.
Does that mean you can't buy & sell stocks online?
Although the head of the state Gambling Commission says it is unlikely that individual online gamblers will be targeted for arrest, the new law carries stiff penalties: as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
:P
There should be a law that you can't put a law on the books with no intention of enforcing it. The law has enough baggage from previous years when politicians would grandstand for the "hang 'em high" crowd. I suggest hanging high anyone who puts a useless law on the book.
Look it, the only reason that the gov't HATES online gambling is because it doesn't get paid tribute.
The gov't hates when industries that rake in cash don't pay special tribute by donating, ect. Look at how google is now throwing out cash to avoid investigations and avoid the trouble MS had in the 90's.
Pay tribute to the masters and you can do what you want.
plus the state has a monopoly on gambling (state lotteries), they don't want that threatened. so lets throw harmless people in jail for a non-violent, victimless crime. Yes, america "home of the free" what a load of crap
It dates back to around the 1930's (I think) when organized crime was rampant thanks to things like prohibition. The feds tried to crack down on illegal betting way back then by passing laws that made it illegal to place any sort of wager by phone. Betting parlors, bookies, etc. relied heavily on people placing bets via the phone. (For it to be a federal offense the call actually had to cross state lines.) Needless to say, those laws still remain on the books some 75 years later, and they're now applied to internet wagering as well...
Mandatory sunset date of one year. Not just this stupid law but also laws that your congress-vermin pass. One year, it's re-evaluated and then passed again or thrown away.
Place your bets...
http://www.walottery.com/
KFG
There are two Washingtons. To the west of the Cascades, there is s fair percentage of liberal thought. To the East of the Cascades, it's pretty much a Dependent Territory of Idaho.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
This is sweet. We definitely need to fill our prisons with more people that shouldn't be there.
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Thats the funny thing ... the law contains exceptions to allow a) the state to sell lottery tickets online and b) wagering on horse races.
This is pretty crazy. Washington has tons of casinos nearly everywhere (except Seattle, and the city limits of some other suburbs). That said it seems like they're trying to crack down on the competition. You can go to your local tribal or nontribal casino and blow your money, but don't you *dare* do it online.
This is reminicient of the smoking ban just last year. I don't gamble or smoke, but I do believe in personal freedoms. Sadly, this place is slowly turning into a nanny state as the years go by.
I've lived in both western and eastern Washington. My assertion is that when they were splitting up the territories, they did it in the wrong direction; Washington should be a long narrow state like California, entirely west of the Cascades, and Oregon should be a bigger yet less-populous state east of the Cascades. Then each state would probably have a much easier time governing itself. But alas.
Comment of the year
Animal torture is legal as long as you're a large industrial meat processing plant. They only go after individuals, especially if the animal is cute.
We have quite a few Indian casinos, and playing poker is legal in general. The online joints are probably taking revenues away from the state, so I'm not terribly surprised.
Besides, with unregulated online casinos running in another country, why on earth would anyone A) implement a casino without the ability to skim (Which could be completely invisible to anyone without some serious probabilities analysis tools and a lot of time to sit playtesting) or B) want to play said unregulated online casino?
If I had points today, you, sir, would get one of them.
My conservative parents have baffled me all my life. They home schooled us kids, went to church, all that stuff, and always ripped on the Government when they would try and meddle in church or homeschooling. "Let us decide what's best for our own!" they would say.
I grew up, went away to college, and started smoking and gambling. "Smoking's bad for you, look at these Government studies!" Right, the Government studies. The same Government that doesn't know what's best for you, that you've been putting down all these years, suddenly they know what's best for me and have my best interests at heart. Right.
One thing drives the Government: Money.
Let me say it again: Money.
Oh, sure, they're after power, too; but power's only a means to an end... and what do you think that end is?
Sony ha
You can choose to smoke cigarettes around a newborn baby, even blowing smoke in its face, and it's completely legal, but to gamble your own money should be a crime? Because they can tax the cigarettes, but it's difficult to enforce taxes on online winnings. Without that tax money, how are they supposed to vote themselves more payraises? There is no logical reason for this. If you think about it, most laws are in place for no reason other than as reasons to fine us or tax us to death.
The original purpose of laws at all was to impose a minimal number of laws to ensure the safety of lives and property of citizens. How does it ensure the safety of my life or property if I cross a suburban street anywhere other than a street corner if no cars are coming? I learned to look both ways. It's still a crime a cop could fine me for.
What politician does it hurt if two guys want to go consensually behind closed and do whatever the hell they want to do with each other? Who does it hurt if I want to give a guy a blow job, or he wants to go down on me? Hell, we're adults, and yet these are still crimes in some states. Must we get permits?
See why I like a lot (but not all) of the ideas behind anarchy? Get the government the hell out of our lives.
It's a girl!
Then again, I've never done it anywhere that didn't meet fire code.
I even have ignited dozens of model rocket engines indoors (safely secured) and detonated thermite. I'd say there is a basic expectation of fire-safety with regards to buildings. If there was a lazy/corrupt/incompetent fire inspector that is where the blame lies.
People are going to smoke, light candles, use toasters, and have accidents in the kitchen. You can't always blame the person that finds the problem.
Man, you really need that seminar!
You can day-trade yourself into the poorhouse on Schwab, but online poker is a felony? WTF?!?!
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Pity that Governor Chris Gregoire is a Democrat. Otherwise you all could blame it on Bush/Rove/Cheaney.
Church far from equals government here. Look at countries like Iran where the religious leaders have far more power than the government, the government entity only exists and acts in accordance with religious leaders. Sure the church has alot of influence here, but its much more a case by case basis... not even remotely the same.
Secondly, the real "because" of the post you responded to is "because politicians of any party always act in their best interest". This is proven time and time again. Sure they do what the people want... but only when it will benefit them, be it re-election to maintain or get more power, obtain industry allies, receive bribes and benefits. The reality of Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal is that they are like an auction house simplified down to 2 bidders. All the industries, special interest groups etc represent people and groups... representing money, influence, power. The political parties are bidding on that money, influence, power. If a new special interest group forms up, never seen before... ONE of those 2 parties is going to pick it up, GUARANTEED. Thats money, power, influence... they don't care what it stands for, as long as it doesn't cause them to lose what they already have. Democrats and republicans are more groups of special interests that can stand each other, not about any real united ideology or great plan or desire to serve. People who really want to help people don't make it in politics, its so easy to ruin their lives. Even if they do make it part of the way, they are forced to surround themselves with people who don't give a crap and just there for themselves... so nothing really gets done.
People sit here and are like... "wow, I can't believe a liberal state is doing this". It has NOTHING to do with that, democrats are simply acting in their best interest. Republicans would do the same if they had more control too. They are paid in power, influence and money. Just like most people they don't really give a crap about freedom, or liberty or anything else... unless theres more power, influence and money to be had. Tell a party you'll send them a billion a year to operating online casinos, or pass some random law and I guarantee one of the parties will try to do it. Even if it doesn't "fit" in their ideology. They'll make it fit. If i gave them a billion to fight for my freedom, or guaranteed them alot of power... they'd give me my freedom to. You think you deserver freedom and liberty, politicians think you should pay them for it.
That guy should do exactly zero time in jail.
You got some average guy. This guys lights of indoor pyro as part of a music act.
A foam mat catches on fire, people can't leave because the building is not up to code.
That person will ahve to live with that forever. He is NOT a danger to society.
There is no reason to put him in jail cost the taxpayers 100s of thousands of dollars, and put a hardship on his family, which will probably end up cost taz payers even more money.
If this guy was an arsonist, then yeah, lock him up. He is just a guy, doing a task in a club that the fire martial should have closed.
Seems like a tradgic accident, and the need for a scapegoat to me.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This one falls into two categories with one go...:
I'm not sure how they do it, since it's on gross receipts. Maybe it's the total difference of incoming money and outgoing money from a given individual casino concerning gambling. The B&O tax is a fixed rate, more or less. It tends to be either 1.5% or 1.6% of the gross receipts for gambling if you look at http://dor.wa.gov./
This law doesn't bother me. Gambling via the Internet seems like a bad idea. You cannot check for someone's age, and plus there's no way to deal with people who have gambling problems.
However, what does bother me about the law is the punishment. One, at most it should be a gross misdemeanor, not a felony. Two, they should go after any business which doesn't hold a disclaimer saying Washingtonians cannot gamble via their site. A fine equal to 110% of the winnings or amount gambled, whichever is greater, for the individual Washingtonian who gambled.
How many have heard that Washington state is considering raising the gambling age from 18 to 21?
You also need an untraceable method of funding your account and withdrawing your winnings.
The funiest part is that in WA we have tribal gambling, lotteries, and you can even have actual poker rooms off the reservation if you get the permits etc.
So gambling is apparently fine, it's the online part that is illegal.
How about the goddamned state-sponsored lotteries? There isn't even any strategy, just toss your money away!
He is just a guy, doing a task in a club that the fire martial should have closed.
I think the goal is that future pyrotechnicians won't just start lighting off fireworks and saying, "eh, it's someone else's job to worry about fire safety, not mine". Hopefully the first question out of the pyro's mouth to the club owner will be, "is this place up to code, cause my ass isn't spending 4 years in the state pen if it isn't?"
Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
Doing it in a crowded building is still incredibly wreckless, and IF someone where to be killed, you SHOULD be held accountable.
The whole "I've done incredibly wreckless things multiple times and haven't hurt anyone yet" justification is nothing but a cop-out...
Hey, as the owner of a pesticide plant, I've been dumping explosive chemicles into the ocean for YEARS now, and nobody has been killed yet!
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
That's not really true, for the market to increase in value on average then more money must be coming in than is going out. A paper profit is no profit at all.
One thing I can think of is that in Washington (and other states) they regulate casinos in order to make sure the games are fair.
How can the state make sure the online games are not rigged?
Why is this not a problem that bothers online gamblers? If you gamble online, please reply and tell me how you know the virtual cards or virtual dice or virtual roulette wheel is not rigged. I am curious to know as I don't gamble at all.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I've been dumping explosive chemicles into the ocean for YEARS now, and nobody has been killed yet!
You may get in trouble with the pollution people, but from a fire safety standpoint I don't see any problem with this, and fire/the ocean actually works as a pretty good comparison. If I were dumping a can of gas into the ocean then throwing a match in, I'd say it's a fairly reasonable expectation that I'm not going to burn down the entire ocean. Of course, there's an extremely slim chance that my little gas slick will spread farther and faster than expected and come into contact with the contents of some sinking tanker. If that happened would you be screaming for me to be hanged?
If you ever get the chance, I'd like you to try something. Take some junk floorboards/roof tiles/random building materials and some (non-professional) fireworks, and try start a fire with them (in a safe place, hopefully). You may make a few singes, some smoke damage, maybe even a few wisps of fire, etc, but you'd probably have to go well out of your way to be able to create some conditions that would ignite easily enough and quickly enough to consume a building and the people inside before it can be controlled/the people can flee. And I'm pretty sure there's a law or two about building owners having to make sure those conditions don't exist.
I realise I'm getting a bit pedantic here but that's the definition of manslaughter, not murder. Murder is *by definition* pre-planned.
Also, I would disagree that someone who is unstable enough to kill someone during the course of an argument is not a danger to society. What about the next time someone spills their pint on him?