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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.'"
Wow, you can kill someone and get less prison time... Look at the guy in the northeast who set off fireworks in doors and led to 100 people dying and he only got 4 years!
Good game, government.
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!
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?
possessing child pornography, threatening the governor or torturing an animal
I'm pretty sure one of those is legal. I just can't remember which.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
God bless the good ol' land of the free. This is getting way past rediculous. It seems almost that soon murdering all witnesses that saw you commit some petty crime, like gambliing, will net you less jail time than getting busted for the small thing. I mean, 5 years for sitting at a computer and clicking a mouse. Sadly, it isn't sounding so unusual, but damn, that seems VERY fucking cruel.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
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.
The state profits on gambling from horse racing and the state lottery. The Indian casino lobby is huge. Since the online guys don't kick back to the state, and since the Indians have deeper pockets, guess who gets the shaft? Nothing to do with the churches this time.
In Washington State, Indian reservations are building more and bigger casinos. Online gambling is considered a threat. They have successfully lobbied for this law. That's all there is to it.
Funny how Magic the Gathering Online, run by a Washington state company, now falls under this gambling bullshit. You can buy tickets to participate in matches, and the winners of matches can be awarded prizes -- therefore it's gambling in the eyes of the law.
Congratulations on supporting local businesses, Gregoire! Oh wait you're in the pocket of the tribal casinos... I forgot.
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
"Either that or it's a persuasive tribal lobbyist."
F actBook2004.pdf page 75. My thanks to "Dan" of the 2+2 Forums for finding the contributor information.
Bingo!
I wondered, "Who sponsored this and who contributed to the sponsor's election?" The sponsor was Senator Margarita Prentice (D) 11th District, and here are some of her financial supporters -
WA INDIAN GAMING ASSN OLYMPIA WA
NISQUALLY INDIAN TRIBE OLYMPIA WA
MUCKLESHOOT INDIAN TRIBE AUBURN WA
CHIPS CASINO LLC BREMERTON WA
CONF TRIBES OF COLVILLE RESERVATION NESPELEM WA
GOLDIE'S SHORELINE CASINO SHORELINE WA
This is from http://www.pdc.wa.gov/datarequests/factbooks/pdf/
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
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?
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.
Five bucks says they'll never catch me.
IMHO, the purpose of the criminal justice system is not to punish. Let that sink in. I don't want to punish criminals. It's stupid. It's vindictive. It's emotional and it isn't constructive.
What SHOULD be the purpose of the justice system? One thing, and one thing only:
To separate dangerous individuals from society, and keep them separated.
Note, by "dangerous" I mean physicly harmful only. I don't mean, "they don't live like we think they should". I don't mean "they stole a lot of money". Yes. That's right. Thieves don't belong in jail unless they hurt people physicly. If the crime is monetary, there is an excellent argument for RESTITUTION in the form of fines and wage garnishment. There is no good argument for SEPARATION unless the guy waved a gun in somebody's face to get the money.
I may not *like* the Enron criminals, but wouldn't mind living next door to them. These guys are not going to stick a gun in my face and BLOW MY HEAD OFF. They are (probably) not going to rape my children.
Get it, government idiots?
Some guy who plays online poker and smokes weed on the weekends does not belong in jail. If you want to tax the weed and the poker, fine but I am SICK AND TIRED of my government setting child rapists and armed thugs free so they can put functional members of society behind bars because of their particular notions regarding crime and punishment. Frankly, that kid of life sounds like enough punishment.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
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
What are the odds? If, say, I were a gambling man...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
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?
I hope you didn't post that from Washington.
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
How about the goddamned state-sponsored lotteries? There isn't even any strategy, just toss your money away!
Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
I don't even gamble but this stupid law makes me sad to be a resident of Washington State. Sometimes the greed in our State government knows no bounds. They weasel their way into raising our tab fees after we voted them down and they screw us on our road bills where they say roads will be paved with high grade concrete only to be stripped and replaced with asphault, guaranteeing more idiots working the roads and less efficiency in our state funds going to improve more infrastructures. Vote Libertarian and force these pukes to follow through and put the money where they proclaim it will be put and no more.
Let the idiots who become addicted to gambling shrivel up in their own miseries for being weak. Re-privatized our Liquor stores that presently force everyone to drive to the reservations for reasonable prices. Good for the reservations and their exemptions but come on! Stop screwing your residents. Fix out power grids with a joint private venture so we are less susceptible to power outages and real jobs are created instead of the various strip mall retail service ilk.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
* Counsel the murderers
* Jail the rapists
* Hang bad drivers
OK, you've got my vote. Which district are you running in?