Wynn, your state sucks

[Monster]

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid= ... 1&from=rss

It doesn't even seem legal to pass laws this harsh. As far as I know you're the only one here who gambles on the Internet, so I bet it really sucks for you! This law is bullshit. Not only should it not get passed, the legislators who introduced it should be hung as traitors to the American people. Damn tyrants. I guess the government gets pissed when it's not getting paid.

[Wynn]

Believe me, I agree. I knew about this several months ago when it was introduced. It passed because the casino lobby is pretty big here, and why would a politician vote no on what is generally considered a "sin"?

Regardless, it's always been illegal on a federal level. It was technically illegal in the state of WA, but they clarified the law to explicitly call out the internet, explicitly call out poker, and raise it from a Misdemeanor to a Class C Felony. It is total hogwash that this could ever be considered a serious crime.

I expect if anyone actually gets prosecuted for this, it will pretty much go to the highest court. I know I'd fight it out of principle. To be clear, it is perfectly legal to gamble. It is perfectly legal to play poker. The only thing making it illegal is using the internet to do it instead of going to an actual casino or card room where the state can tax the profits.

BTW, I thought the comment was interesting that Magic the Gathering Online can be considered internet gambling.

[Hado]

WTF

5 Years for online gambling? How did this ever get passed, considering how popular it is? Politicians over there must be deranged/totally corrupt. I bet the local casinos have been lobbying to get rid of online gambling so there's less competition.

Every few days I hear about another one of your liberties being stripped away.

[Monster]

That's why my comment about hanging them... our legislators are paid to sell out the citizenry. They throw away our rights for money. Corporations are buying our government. The only word for this law is tyranny, pure and simple.

This kind of bullshit cannot continue forever... there will eventually be a revolution if America continues down this path, if history is any indicator (and it always is). Americans have revolution in their blood. Well, at least many of them do.

It's not just the government that's the problem. Corporations like the MPAA and RIAA are extorting the people and the government is helping them. It's completely legal for the RIAA to hack systems, have people arrested and demand thousands of dollars for downloading a song.

Anyway, this is making my blood boil and I could go on forever about such injustices. I'll just finish by saying the government is not on our side and likely never will be. America died a long time ago.

[Monster]

Well Wynn, it looks like you wouldn't have been able to play much longer anyway:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/in ... =rss.index

I like this quote:

Supporters of a ban say the Internet's widespread availability makes it too easy to gamble, something that can create betting addictions and financial problems.

Is there anyone stupid enough to actually believe that's why they banned it? Puhlease.

[Wynn]

That's flawed anyway, since you can go online and gamble legally today. Betting on horse racing is considered acceptable.

It's also trivially easy to gamble legally offline if you want to. Go to any supermarket and buy a lottery ticket. Drive a few blocks to a card room and play any number of table games, including poker.

Yeah the House passed this bill, but it still has to go through the Senate. The good news is my Representative voted No on it, so at least he did his part. I just emailed my Senators to encourage them to vote No when it comes up there.

I also joined the Poker Players Alliance http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org/ which is the closest thing to a lobbying group for this, with some big name pros on the board leading the charge. You don't have to join, but the web site provides an easy way to send emails to your elected officials. If you care at all about this topic, I encourage you to click through and send off emails to your Senators as well.

In conclusion, old fuddy-duddy politicians like Goodlatte suck.

[Wynn]

John Stewart touches on some of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DClkE64nFDY&search=Jon%20Stewart%20Internet