[Trojan man]

I just don't see how it will get people out of their homes to go play at the casinos.

[_GUN_]

I wouldn't worry about this law. It wasn't thought through at all.

1-there is no agency being started to enforce or investigate cases

2-the government has no right to track your internet habits unless you're suspected of terrorist activity, black market trading or something similar...the government can't just hack your set-up and watch you at random to see if you play cards online

3-how are they going to receive a tip to stop you? John Doe calls his police station and says that Jimmy C. is playing online poker, go to his house and arrest him...

3B, that'd never be acceptable as a tip in a court of law
3C, why on earth would a police officer even take a report on such a tip?

4-this law is going to be enforced like spitting on the grass. no agency equals no arrests. it's just a relations move to show support for in-state business. they're pretending that they're keeping these dollars at home.

[CaptLego]

I worry about this law. Thankfully, I don't live in WA but I still worry about it.

Basically, I don't think online gambling should be illegal. Saying that you probably won't be caught doesn't make me feel comfortable with it because:
a) I don't like being put in a position of breaking a law and hoping I won't get caught (I do get caught speeding every so often, but I don't like it -- and that's not a felony)
b) I don't feel very assured that I wouldn't get caught. With the recent revelations about the government datamining telephone call records, my paranoia has (justifiably, IMO) increased. It's not hard to datamine IP routing. It's not hard to correlate that with Netteller connections. It's not hard to convince a brain like GW's that playing poker probably has connections to terrorism.

As for the democracy thing, as Wyle points out -- we have a representative democracy. The idea is that we elect individuals to represent us in the governmental activities. We trust their judgement. Unfortunately, those individuals increasingly seem to represent themselves by catering to:
a) people who give them money
b) people who actually vote for them, or can help them get re-elected.

I think the only solution to the problem of laws like this is for us to become more responsible citizens. We need to pay more attention to what our representatives are actually doing, and respond appropriately at the polls.

[ink_junkie]

Originally Posted by sbshaner

This is total BS, the state of wa. sold out to the local casinos. A while ago they banned smoking here so the local casinos lost alot of revenue to tribal casinos, now the state is trying to make it up with them by banning online poker! Washington state sucks!

http://www.kirotv.com/news/9325961/detail.html

I agree it's a BS law, but as someone else pointed out it's really a law without teeth as there is no way to enforce it.

This is actually quite different from the smoking ban (which banned smoking pretty much everywhere, not just casinos). The smoking ban was an initiative voted on, and passed, by the people of Washington. The internet gambling law would not pass as an initiative. And while I'm not a fan of the ban on smoking (I'm a non-smoker but think private business owners should be able to decide if they want to allow smoking in their own establishment), most of the tribal casinos (Muckleshoots, for example) are following suit and making their poker rooms non-smoking because they were actually loosing buiness to non-tribal casinos that were forced to curtail smoking.

[Harlequin011]

Enforceable or not. It is now illegal.

Just because it will be hard to get caught, does not mean that anyone should do it.

Poker/gambling is growing faster than the laws can keep up with. There is strong opposistion to any gaming online. I for one would not want for this site or any of its members to catch any heat for being mistakenly considered as circumventing any gaming laws.

Hate to be a wet blanket, but there could be more than just friendly eyes on this site.

*On enforcement.

Could it be possible that the gaming sites themselves would need to enforce where you can legally play? I know that IP addresses can be traced to geographic locations by ISPs.

What if the ISPs reported where the players were originating from? The U.S. won't stand for foreign nations breaking its' laws on their own soil.

Just food for thought. And a CYA notice.

[tri-lam]

Originally Posted by punk1o1

I feel sorry for you guys living in WA

Yep. Well, i'm moving back to AZ soon, so I guess i'll have to wait a couple months to play online.

[punk1o1]

Originally Posted by CaptLego

I think the only solution to the problem of laws like this is for us to become more responsible citizens. We need to pay more attention to what our representatives are actually doing, and respond appropriately at the polls.

Im live in Canada and this doesnt effect me but I like what you said here....

[shadesofgrey]

Does anyone know if you can play for free still? I dont understand how they can determine if you are playing for money (gambling) or for free (err not gambling). other than watching your transactions to say Neteller and the like.