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Play Poker, Go To Jail


Poker? I hardly even know her!With little notice from the news media, a law banning Washingtonians from gambling online went into effect Wednesday.

The bill amended a previous law barring the transmission of gambling information by adding the words "Internet� and “telecommunications transmission system.� As a Class “C� felony, online gambling could lead to a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

In addition to Washington state, online gambling in banned in Louisiana, Massachusetts, South Dakota and Utah. The Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, home to multiple Internet gambling sites, has appealed to the World Trade Organization to reverse the states’ laws.

State and federal laws regulating or banning online gambling have yet to be enforced against individuals playing poker or other gambling games online from home.

The online poker business generated an estimated $16 billion in revenue last year.



Posted by Kunochan on Jun 8 2006 3:58PM

Comments (12)
Carmac
 Carmac wrote on Jun 8 2006 3:56PM
That's quite scary. What's the point?
Robo-K1ll
 Robo-K1ll wrote on Jun 8 2006 5:49PM
Casinos were losing money? :D
GhostOutlaw
 GhostOutlaw wrote on Jun 8 2006 7:42PM
Interesting. I wonder why their banning it all together instead of figuring out a way to make a buck off it.
Maniac[Z]
 Maniac[Z] wrote on Jun 8 2006 8:36PM
There is no point its just a bunch of do gooders who think they need to stop people from wasting their money. They should learn to mind their own business.
DraZa
 DraZa wrote on Jun 8 2006 8:41PM
#4 no it's because state casinos rake in money for the state but online poker doesn't.

I thought that a class C felony in Washington State carries up to a maximum of 10 years in prison...oh well. Better hold your bets...
GhostOutlaw
 GhostOutlaw wrote on Jun 9 2006 12:16PM
Its funny that they just shut it down completely as opposed to appointing a small panel to investigate how the money gets from the people to the companies and then taxing the method. Itd take no more then a week to find out how the money gets moved. Then they put a small tax on it and bam in no more then 6 months theyve paid for the cost of the investigation and they are now MAKING money off it.
Kunochan
 Kunochan wrote on Jun 9 2006 2:50PM
It's easy -- the money goes from gamblers to foreign and "off-shore" gaming sites via Visa and Mastercard. We can't tax foreigners, and you can be sure Visa and Mastercard will fight the idea of being used to collect taxes on foreign transactions.

People forget why the Internet was wonderful and earth-shattering in the first place. The only way to clamp down on this kind of thing is to enact Chinese-style measures, which hopefully won't happen. (Or invade the countries that sponsor Internet gambling -- yikes!)

Guess what? Not everything can be regulated by the government. (And I'm a vociferous advocate of government regulation of both commerce and gambling.)
GhostOutlaw
 GhostOutlaw wrote on Jun 9 2006 7:09PM
Theres more ways then just mastercard or visa to send money to these gambling sites. WU, netteller, bunches of places like that. I dont see what the issue is with putting a minor tax on the money people spend on online gambling.
Maniac[Z]
 Maniac[Z] wrote on Jun 11 2006 9:43AM
DraZa the state does not own casinos.
GhostOutlaw
 GhostOutlaw wrote on Jun 11 2006 10:08AM
State collects money from them in the forms of taxes, lisences, and other things though.
Maniac[Z]
 Maniac[Z] wrote on Jun 12 2006 10:12AM
Non-indian casinos make up a very small percentage of the gambling profits made in washington state. The government doesn't have control over indian casinos.
GhostOutlaw
 GhostOutlaw wrote on Jun 12 2006 6:09PM
Yea thats because apparently we took their land away from them hundreds of years ago or something like that. Its all propaganda though....
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