Washington Votes Forum

this is Gvt at it's worst. how in the world can we have a lottery and card rooms in this state and not allow online poker?? i see all my reps backed this, they can feel safe knowing i will never cast a vote for them again. the Governor never had my support to begin with.

i try my best to follow politics but i have been focused on the Feds and not my home state...that will change as of today. i will post news as i find it, i will run for these offices if the need arises.

i have voted for some Libs in my days but i do not agree in the no Gvt ideology....yes this is an example of bad Gvt but not all of it is bad. it is the citizens duty to keep them doing the work we want...and i will do that by voting out Gregiore, Paull Shin, Mary Helen Roberts and Brian Sullivan

don't see #1 being a factor in this....but #2 is dead on.

wow. does this punishment fit the crime?

What a pathetic bunch of legislatures we have here in Washington. With the number of private and Indian Casinos we have here in Washington the passage of this bill reeks of hypocracy. After 44 years of living and honest law abiding life on June 6th I'll become a felon, just because I turned on my computer at home and made a few clicks with the mouse because I refused to drive down to the local casino and wager more money than I would need to at home. I guess we need Tim Eyman to start and initiative going to overturn this crap. What a waste of time and money.

Since everyone is whining about not being able to gamble on the internet, maybe you could use some of that internet 'savvy' you possess to read a bit. If you did you would see that, in fact, internet gambling has been illegal for some time. The 'new' law only clarifies it for those that exist only to try and get away with something. The only thing 'new' in the law is the change in penalty. Yeah, seems hard, but that's life. So..whoever is claiming the law is new doesn't know what they are talking about. And if the only way you can get your gambling jollies is on a computer, you really need to get a life.

Someone got LARGE election contributions from some Indian Casinos.

Dear Uninformed and Unread-- You are referring to the 1961 Wire Act. In 2002 the US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court upheld the 2001 Duval ruling stating that "[A] plain reading of the statutory language [of the Wire Act] clearly requires that the object of the gambling be a sporting event or contest." Other forms of iGambling are not covered by the Wire Act. I suppose that YOU have NOT READ either. Interestingly, the Wire Acts's penalty was two years, versus Washington State's five years. The Wire Act was aimed at organized crime after several scandals involving college and professional sports. Current action in Congress intends to greatly expand the prohibition while excluding a multitude of special interest gambling forms. See iGambling.blogspot.com

What are the advantages of playing poker on the Internet: 1-you can learn the game by playing "Play Money" games. 2-you can record all the games you play so that you can study your playing errors and successful styles. 3-you can join Tournaments every minute of every day and leverage your "bet" 4-the range of games and the range of blinds are much greater than at a casino. 5-you will find tables with smaller blinds than you will ever find at any card club or casino. 6-you will find more reasonable rakes at many on-line sites than you would ever find in real life 7-you will get 2x to 3x the games per hour on-line that you will get in real life. 8-you will not need to waste the time to drive to a card club/casino, park, walk, buy your chips, find a table in your range/game, walk, sell your chips, walk, get your car, and drive home 9-you will not waste your money on booze and marked up food 10-while you learn your game you will not be 'telling' the word all about your cards 11-you will find yourself among amateurs like yourself, versus sharks that feast on amateurs at card clubs 12-you won't have to hire a baby sitter for your sleeping kids at $10/hour--you can step away from the table at any time to check on them. Texas Hold'm is a great, highly complex game with layers of learning. Your comments display a total ignorance of the advantages of on-line poker.

Nope..didn't read the Wire Act. Then again, I thought the focus was Washington State law. Hmm...must be misreading about every post on here. Or, heaven forbid, someone else isn't?? I do have to admit, I love watching debates where logic is optional.

Just looking at the State of Washington, its gambling act was enacted in 1973 (ignoring for a moment the 1982 lottery commission act). It reads: "Whoever knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore, or similar means, or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor." The law was created to deal with organized crime efforts with respect to sports gambling. At the time, no one imagine that citizens would be able to play a card game using a semaphore, or similar means. The law postdates the federal Wire Act, which was relevant only to interstate gambling using wire communication facilities. Plainly, iGambling was not illegal under either the federal Wire Act or under RCW 9.46.240 or else neither Washington State or Washington would have and are, respectively, sought/seeking supplemental legistlation. Now that is logic. You are plainly wrong. Igambling was not illegal in Washington State until the ill-conceived passage of the amendment to RCW 9.46.240. Igambling (excluding sports gambling) is not illegal in the U.S. Read the law and then perhaps someone should listen to your dribble.

I guess you missed the post where someone explained the Washington State law, and pointed out that if it WAS already illegal there'd be no reason to pass a new law MAKING it illegal. Apparently you must participate in a lot of so-called "logic optional" discussions because you're obviously used to being illogical. As for Sen. Prentice (who also serves on the state gaming commission), if you go to opensecrets.org, you will see that one of her main campaign contributors is a casino. Then one year later she tried to shut down the very minicasinos she helped a year earlier, apparently because they wouldn't agree to higher taxation. This isn't about "protecting the kids" or any of that, it's about making money for Sen. Prentice and the State of Washington. The state couldn't figure out a way to make money from online poker, as they obviously do from other forms of gambling, and so they just decided to shut it down. It's ugly money politics at it's worst, and Prentice should be out of office.

All the legislation does is clarify what was already in statute and change the penalty. Go look at the bill report. There is a laundry list of reasons to clarify it. The other thing..it was done so quickly and no one knew about it. According to who? Hearing, committee vote, rules selection, Senate vote, House hearing, committee vote, rules selection, House vote. All open to public. Notifications on hearings. Is it because they didn't call each and every internet gambler? Did anyone pay attention? Or just too lazy to go to a hearing? This thing took almost the entire session to get through. Where is the surprise? 90% of the battle in politics is just showing up. How many of you did?

Nice try. Similar means. Open ended. Just think of all that money you would have saved...

We all have lives and don't follow every action that the legistlation takes. The press, who gets a percentage of their ad income from the casinos, obviously, didn't do its part. I would bet that 500,000 Washingtonians this weekend will become felons and won't know it. Look at the response to this insane law--you are the only insane person in support. I bet you are a staffer to some corrupt politician?

That would make it easy for you wouldn't it! Just add to your conspiracy theories eh? So if the media doesn't keep you informed about everytime someone belches in Olympia, they've screwed up eh? You guys crack me up. Ya'll have fun whining. It's so constructive. Cheers!

I realize that I am an extremely uninformed Washingtonian but I am hoping someone can help me. I have just two questions. Do the Indians own Emerald Downs? Can still go to Emerald Downs with my kids and teach them the importance of horse racing?

Gregoire *is* a Democrat, and she signed it into law.

Mr. xxxxxxx, This is the reasons for the passage of 6613. It passed out of both the House and the Senate with a near unanimous vote. Internet gambling has always been illegal in Washington State. It was a gross misdemeanor, and this bill increased the penalty to make it a felony. The bill was proposed to make it even clearer that the activity is illegal, and more specifically, that the state lottery may not use the internet in any gaming related activities. The reason for this was to ensure that the state was not forced to negotiate internet gambling with tribes in their tribal compacts. If there was any kind of argument that the state was allowing internet gaming, the tribes would be able to negotiate internet gaming into their compacts. Senator Jim Honeyford Republican Caucus Chair PO Box 40415 Olympia, WA 98504-0415

Thank Christ i dont live in such a backwards state as Washington. Why dont the true criminals (politicians) tell us their true motivation: They want a cut of the action. Pure and simple. I recognize the concern, that wealthy americans such as myself are gambling with TAXABLE income. What if i lose a 10k pot to an opponent in another country?? O my god the horror!!! Taxable income leaving our soil before the political pigs can take a cut. Is our Gross Domestic Product really that vulnerable that the civil liberties of law abiding citizens need to be raptured?? Attempt to pass this bill at the federal level and i will be among the first of the mass exodus of productive tax paying americans. Self serving fascist nonsense... im getting upset, time to put in a 20 hour session on Full Tilt.

I left Utah in 1989 because I was sick of living in a State that made it illegal to have a keg of beer, illegal to gamble, and all thier other Church initiated laws. Now living here in WA State seems to be following suit with Utah, just on a different level. I am an avid player of real money tournaments and a smoker to boot, my choice.. Wa State already banned smoking in casino's, except for the Tribal ones, fine I can hang with that, no problem, I ll just kick it at home, play my poker and play some tournaments, I can easily spend a mere 25.00 a month and play dozens of tournaments in that time, now Im being told if I want to play tournaments, I not only have to leave the comfort of my home, but waste gas to drive somewhere, waste even more money becuse you can't buy into any tournaments for a mere 3.00 anywhere around here, adjust my schedule to that of a casino since tournaments aren't all day 24 hours a day, sit with a bunch of drunks and freeze my ass off and miss plays so I can go smoke outside.. What country am I living in??? What State am I living in???? I'm so sick to my stomach with this BS that I definately cannot wait until the next election comes... I remember years ago, Utah tried to pass a law prohibiting Rated R movies from being shown on cable tv in the State of Utah. Is this going to be next?? What other rights and freedoms can I look forward to having removed??? Why doesn't the State focus on the abused children in our State, The homeless, domestic violence, Murder, Rape, Gangs and leave me alone to play a 3.00 tournament online!!!!!!

What is next? The legislators have decided that "We" do not need to participate in on line wagering/gambling. China controls its internet. Make no mistake about this new law. Your internet access is now being controlled. What will the legislators regulate access to next? Whether you oppose or condone internet gambling should not be the point. The point is that the government decided to pass a law while we slept that infringes on our internet access. As a retired vetran and responsible adult I do not believe that I need Big Brothers help. China...do not forget that name!

If it were not bad enough (And it is) that the WA. state legislators are attempting to control the INTERNET within our state they pass a law that making non compliance (Read..China!) a felony? On line gamblers could face the same punishment and life long criminal record as that of a rapist or armed robber?

All of you people aren't getting what is actually going on. Currently online gambling is illegal in the United States on a State and Federal level. All of the poker sites that you visit are International sites that dont have any sore of rules of operation being that the internet is an international entity. This law only clarifys that you can not make bets by the internet just like you couldnt do by phone and other form of communication. It also re-writes earlier laws so that it can be cracked down on a state to state and a federal to state level. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH ONLINE POKER SITES. Its just clarifying some of the wording in the current laws. Like I said before its been illegal FOREVER to gamble (take bets) without proper authorization. Pokerstars, Paridise Poker and Party Poker to name a few are internationally owned so they dont have to abide by the laws of the United States.

The law doesnt effect Poker sites that are Internationally owned. Which is ALL OF THEM. This is just making changes to the current law to help against illegal betting. So... DONT TRIP!

In addition to a 25 cent bet on PartyPoker, other Washington State Class C felonies include: bestiality; assault on a child in the third degree; custodial sexual misconduct in the first degree; third degree rape; four DUI's in seven years; second degree assault; sex and labor trafficking; unlawful taking on endangered fish and wildlife; robbery (1 count); animal fighting abuse. 60 months in prison and a $10,000 fine seems more than appropriate for going "all-in" before the flop with less than a pair of jacks in PartyPoker $5 + .50 tournament.

So the way they plan to enforce the law is to prevent credit card companies and banks from allowing you to deposit on internet gaming sites? That doesn't change anything realy since most credit cards don't allow you to deposit to the sites already. Besides, most people that gamble online use a middle man like PayPal or NetTeller. I'm concerned that they are going to end up tracking via ISP's etc. Has anyone ever met someone who was convicted of the misdemeaor that has existed previously? I would love to understand how the prosecution made their case.

More legistlation from Indian Gaming. Don't worry, since online is banned, I WILL NEVER STEP FOOT IN ANOTHER INDIAN CASINO AGAIN! In fact, I will probably move out of this moronic state as soon as possible. I am an avid poker player, and have a right to play poker. I just can't believe this passed so easily. It is a direct violation of my rights. I am ashamed to say I voted for our current Governor who supports this law.

Nice job. I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know what a wonderful job you are doing protecting Indian Gaming profits. Your attempt to stop everyday citizens who enjoy online poker from playing on the internet is admirable. Why should they have a right to play a game they enjoy if your buddies at the Indian Casinos dont get a cut. The nerve of legal age citizens expecting to be able to do what they want with their money and their time. They should be forced to go out to the Indian Casino's and spend their money. That way your buddies make money, the state collects part of the taxes, and everyone is happy. Oh, wait, well hehe, almost everyone is happy. But who cares about them dumbass citizens. They are just suckers anyway. Keep up your good work and you will receive even more contribs from the Indians. And screw those normal voters, I mean really, how many internet gamblers could there be? Not enough to vote you right out of office, right? Hmmmmmmmmmmm, wait, Poker is a national phenomenom lately. Maybe there are enough to vote you out of office...........

I am disabled, and am over an hour from the nearest casino, so I play online. They will not take the right away from me. We need to band together to get this law overturned. It is total nonsense. I have every right to spend my money as I please. I just hope there are enough poker players and online gamblers in Washington to fight this.

So all you online gamblers are unhappy? Just remember that smokers are unhappy too, there is NO where for us to go anymore either! Those of you who voted for I-901 feeling a little bit guilty now?? Do you feel like the Constitution is going out the window? Then remember NOT to vote for any incumbants, and better yet..vote for all the Libertarians you can find! Or just keep on letting our rights under the Constitution go down the drain!

These are the 5 senators that voted against this. There were a few representatives that abstained - I did not list them as they were either absent, or were cowards.

RIGHT AND WRONG. PartyPoker may be a felon on the new Washington law, RCW 9.46.240, but they are immune--in Gibraltar, or such. However, the Seattle bettor IS A FELON for three reasons--(1) he/she is transmitting gambling information (bets) and (2) most often installs software to play at these sites and maintains equipment (modems and computer) and (3) receives gambling information (if you so set up the preference, some sites dump the results of every hand you play into a folder on your computer). So, you see, you are a FELON if you go onto PartyPoker in Seattle, Spokane, or Tacoma and place one bet. I hear that they plan on using a special tribal gambling tax to build a new prison for iGambling felons with card rooms instead of exercise yards. Perfect.

They will say that they just wanted to close the door on Washington-based tribes from setting up iGambling sites. The unintended consequence is that we are all FELONS. Just think 400,000 new felons in the state. Don't think that you will be able to vote these idiots out of office, felons can't vote in Washington, or can they? I could have drafted an amendment that would have closed the tribes out, but not made the citizens criminals. Neither federal or Washington made iPoker illegal until this bill was passed. Sports gambling is a federal crime under the Wire Act of 1961, or so.

Are you serious? These are two totally deferent issues. Last time I checked YOU were still able to smoke in your own house. The fact that you can't smoke in a public place has nothing to do with the fact that playing online poker is now a Class "C" Felony.

To those who are interested, I found a 14 minute clip of discussion regarding this Anti-Internet Gambling law on the TVW website. Click on the following link, and jump 1:14:00 into the clip. It runs until about 1:28:30 before the discussion moves on to another bill: http://www.tvw.org/MediaPlayer/Archived/WME.cfm?EVNum=2006021152&TYPE=A

On TVW there is an almost 2 hour audio clip of discussion which covers multiple bills. Included in these bills is SB 6613, which is the Anti-Internet Gambling law for Washington State. Click on the following link, and jump abou 1:14:00 into the clip. It runs until approx 1:28:30 until discussion moves to another bill. http://www.tvw.org/MediaPlayer/Archived/WME.cfm?EVNum=2006021152&TYPE=A

The whole point of my post was that freedoms are being taken away from ALL citizens, and it's time to do something about it!!

ok so u tell me this? how can u make internet poker illegal? is it because u the government are not making any money from it? as many players from the U.S play ,they claim it on thier taxes, so essentually you are making money on it,this is so absurd we live in north america not iraq or the middle east,this isnt suppose to be a dictatorship it is a people of freedom and democracy.you want to ban poker from your home in your living room but yet a 10 y/o child can access porn from the touch of a button but thats ok right? Where or who has the right to make this decision ? Do you really think this will stand in a court of law? thousands of people who live in the state will very soon be incarcerated so then who will pay your salary with no taxes comming in,this will soon be on that show about the dumbest laws in the world, what propelled this to become an issue in the government anyways? why is this an issue with the state? its all most the same as ciggaretts are the biggest killer in the world but the government makes thier money off of them even though they are killing thier citizen's in the thousands each day! I can not see how the government can come into your house and persecute u for having a nice relaxing evening playing poker. ok say they do excercise the full extent of this law who will police it and how?who's gonna pay the millions and millions of dollars in court procedings? So a doctor of 50 y/o comes home from a 10 hour shift sits down to play a game of poker never ever being in trouble with the law .and boom he is now a criminal.