Online gambling soon to be a FELONY in Washington State.

[cpk]

A dealer at one of the places I play informed me that a new piece of legislation makes online gambling a felony in Washington State. I didn't believe it myself, but a little Google-fu revealed the bad news.

http://washingtonvotes.org/2006-SB-6613

Short version: Substitute Senate Bill 6613 was signed into law by the governor on March 28. It explicitly outlaws using the Internet to transmit and receive wagers, and it increases the severity of the crime from a gross misdemeanor to a class C felony. No word on when this takes effect; possibly, it takes effect immediately.

Truthfully, this sucks. It's now much safer in terms of legal reprocussions to use marijuana in Washington than it is to play poker on the Internet!

[pshabi]

My advice to you, is to start smoking heavily.

[Aytumious]

Beautiful. I wonder how many people even realize this was passed.

[Overdrive]

It seems to be heavily foucused on the lottery from reading your link. Besides when you play poker on the internet you are technically playing in Great Britain, Canada, Aruba, or wherever the game servers are based. Just like if you flew there and played in a casino in Britain or whatever. And what are they gonna do, start arresting people over this? I highly doubt it. This bill is also illegal because it is in violation of World Trade Organization agreements that the United States has signed of which Washington is a state. Play on my friend, play on. This appears to be just some sort of political show off vote type thingy.

[ginko]

This scares me. I live in Washington so now what? I gotta move out of state? Can anyone explain this?

[Mr.K]

Consult an attorney. Honestly. Do it. Or, if you don't want to pony up, join the Poker Players Alliance, and convince THEM to articulate the statute's meaning for you.

[catlover]

It says effective date 6/7/2006.

[ginko]

Where did you see that at catlover? I searched the document and didnt see..

[ginko]

Nevermind I found it, searched a little harder. THx for the headsup guys.

[spatne]

Here's a link to the signed bill.

For anyone unfamilliar with reading legislation, underscored text is newly added, stricken text is has been removed from the law and no longer applies, and text that is neither underscored nor stricken already existed and has not been changed.

Changes in Sec. 3, lines 24-21 specifically add poker to the list of prohibited activities, however it includes poker under the larger umbrella of "games of chance." This will mean something to anyone who's read the Card Player article. The good lawyers who post here can tell us if there's an opportunity to fight on this point, or if Wash State defines "game of chance" differently than the feds.

Changes in Sec. 2 mainly modify the law to include the internet. I specifically like the existing inclusion of semaphore as a banned method of transmitting wagers. I picture 6 people sitting at a table with giant flags.

For people wondering about the effective date, it's right at the top of the bill.

On its face, this bill seems to be scarier than its federal cousin, as it seems to aggressively target the individual bettor. But can anyone with expertise tell me how the hell they're supposed to enforce this? Upping the penalty to a C felony seems like a blatant scare tactic, but if I lived in Washington State, it might work on me.