Spokane7
65°
May 28, 2010 in City
Online gamblers argue for new deal
State Supreme Court hears arguments on Internet wagering cases
OLYMPIA – Is Internet poker just a 21st-century twist on the friendly game played around a kitchen table or “the crack cocaine of gambling”? That’s the question the Washington Supreme Court was asked to decide Thursday.
Online gambling is illegal in Washington, and should remain that way, Assistant Attorney General Jerry Ackerman said, because it can’t be regulated and monitored like casino gambling. Internet sites can’t prevent minors from playing, or cut off compulsive gamblers, he said.
But Lee Rousso, who is challenging the law, said the ban is “illegally protectionist” because it helps local gambling operations by banning out-of-state or out-of-country operations. Internet gambling sites are regulated, just not by the state, he said.
Some justices seemed skeptical of the legal distinction the state makes between games played in a casino or licensed card room, and on the Internet.
“Aren’t these the same games that are played in Indian casinos?” Justice Jim Johnson asked at one point.
They’re the same card game, whether played in casinos, at the kitchen table or the computer table, replied Thomas Goldstein, an attorney for Poker Players Alliance. The state can’t ban online shoe sales to protect in-state shoe stores, but that’s what it does with card games. “This case is about interstate commerce; it is not about gaming,” he said.
Ackerman said it’s not the same game, but a video form in which people sitting anonymously in their homes can lose more money, faster. “Internet gambling is the crack cocaine of gambling because it makes it so easy,” he said.
But Justice Gerry Alexander said the state already allows gambling “almost any time you step out of your house,” and any concerns about the speed and ease of Internet gambling may be more of what he called a generational thing.
“The argument could be made about e-mail … we should go with the U.S. mail and take our time, writing letters,” Alexander said.
The Supreme Court doubled down on gambling cases Thursday, also hearing the appeal of a case that questions whether an online betting service that holds the money for a fee and pays the winners of bets is really an illegal bookmaking operation. George Telquist, an attorney for Betcha.com, said it isn’t, because losers can “welsh” on the bet and get their money back without fear of any reprisal worse than being put on the site’s “dishonor roll.”
“There’s no kneecaps at stake at Betcha.com, there’s no organized crime,” Telquist said.
But Ackerman said just because the debts can’t be enforced doesn’t make them legal.
After the hearings, about 75 members of the Poker Players Alliance, many wearing red T-shirts proclaiming “Poker is not a crime,” gathered on the nearby Capitol steps and insisted they had a right, in the words of alliance chairman and former U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato, to “shuffle up and deal.” The law against online poker playing was “contemptible,” he said, and designed to protect tribal casinos.
Phil Gordon, of Newport, Wash., a professional poker player, said the state has no business regulating Internet gambling: “What I do on my own computer from my own living room is my own business.”
Laura Bangerter, of Puyallup, brought her daughters, ages 3 and 1, to the rally in a stroller. She said she doesn’t play but her husband, a high school teacher, does and wins enough that she can stay home with the children.
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
lafleur10 on May 28 at 8:12 a.m.
Somebody please explain to me why Republicans pretend that they are the party of “no government interference with my life” except when it comes to things like the right to choose, sexual orientation, the right to die, and in this case the right to play poker in my own house? Gee, I wonder if it has something to do with them thinking that THEIR morals are supreme and they think they should think for me (not to mention the millions spent by brick and mortar casinos on Repubs to implement the ban).
If people are wondering why I’m bringing this up on this story, it is because the Bush Administration outlawed internet poker in 2006 and even if WA allows it, it will certainly remain illegal because ALL internet gambling occurs offshore right now and is therefore a FEDERAL crime.
Stay the hell out of my house, in all forms, and then the Repubs can pretend to be the party of individual freedom, until them they are complete frauds…
Manowar2010 on May 30 at 9:19 p.m.
The Bush administration did not outlaw internet poker in 2006. Internet poker is not illegal at the federal level. No federal court has ruled that internet poker is illegal, even by the Wire Act. See the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision if you don’t believe me. Sports betting is a different matter though.
The law in 2006 (passed by Congress as part of the Port Authority bill) just put in barriers for to prevent people from funding illegal online gambling, but it never defined what is illegal (it did however, define what IS illegal - Fantasy Sports. Congressman have to make sure their Fantasy League aint illegal).
Manowar 2010