WA Law Means Linking to Gambling Websites Illegal

tpoker writes "Following a previous story on Washington State making online gambling a felony, the Seattle Times reports that the first legal salvos have begun. 'The first casualty in the state's war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling. What a Bellingham man did on his site was write about online gambling. He reviewed Internet casinos. He had links to them, and ran ads by them. All that, says the state -- the ads, the linking, even the discussing -- violates a new state law barring online wagering or using the Internet to transmit 'gambling information ... Telling people how to gamble online, where to do it, giving a link to it -- that's all obviously enabling something that is illegal.'"

Comments

Re:Bets?

[Ucklak]

So you're implying that the beast of Redmond may be a supporter of this bill?
This could be yet another legal tie to drain the resources of a competitor.

Wouldn't the local routers be at fault though for supplying gambling links via Google?
Wouldn't the end user be at fault for submitting a gambling query that should lock up that user in prison because he is, afterall, a threat to MY safety because he gambles. :-)

RE: why not try prohibition again as well?

[denis-The-menace]

If they elect another Republican government, they will.

I Have No Sympathy

[Greyfox]

Washington state probably has the highest population of technical people and companies outside California. If they can't organize a recall vote over BS like this then I really have no sympathy for their lawmakers abusing them in this fashion.