Washington State Law Tightens Grip on Citizens

Washington State has a new law regarding online gambling that goes into law on June 7th. The new law would make playing poker online a Class C Felony, which happens to be the same as someone possessing Child Porn. Imagine that, playing poker is now the same as some degenerate human looking at naked pictures of children—interesting. Washingtonians that play online poker could get up to five years in the slammer and a $10,000 fine.

The new law goes much further and seeks to control the actions of citizens—next stop, China. The law strictly prohibits the transmission of information related to gambling. That’s right, simply talking about gambling online—in the most literal translation of the law—is going to be illegal. According to Washington State law, “Gambling Information” is defined as:

“any information intended to be used for professional gambling.”

Just what is this information? It is further defined as:

“information as to wagers, betting odds and changes in betting odds shall be presumed to be intended for use in professional gambling.”

This broad description means if you provide handicapping selections, talk about the gambling lines of a game, talk about how to win money playing a game, like poker, or anything similar, you are in violation of the law. So, Washingtonians can’t talk about gambling, but NAMBLA can publish material on seducing little boys—fabulous.

The government’s excuse is the same as always. They pass laws that allow these things, yet claim that they won’t be used in the most literal sense—until they need to. S.S.B. No. 6613 has blindsides Washingtonians and set a dangerous precedence in the United States. This law is most likely going to be used against webmasters running affiliate websites. According to Rick Day, the executive director of the Washington State Gambling Commission, there is no difference between someone advertising affiliate programs and the illegal gambling site itself. According to Day, “If the site also has a link to a gambling site, then to us that’s no different.” Time will tell if other states take notice and work to enact their own “controls.”