State Laws Banning Online Poker

I have written many times that there is no federal law prohibiting the online gambler from playing poker online. I probably have not done a good job of explaining exactly what this means, since I receive so many questions on the same topic.

All citizens are bound by two sets of laws, state and federal. Whereas the federal 1961 Wire Act forbids businesses from accepting sports betting (and some take the incorrect position that the Wire Act prohibits a company from taking a poker bet), there is no federal law that bans the online player from playing poker online.

However, state laws are given the same force and effect as federal laws. A few states have passed statutes making it a misdemeanor to participate in Internet gambling. For example, Illinois passed legislation that criminalized the activity of the individual bettor, making it a Class A misdemeanor (720 ILCS 5/28-1 (2001)(a)©).

This legislation was ridiculed by deputy district attorneys who would be the enforcers of this law, causing the Chicago Sun Times to conclude that the legislation "has bark and no bite" and that "without cyber cops monitoring households and their computers, the law will be difficult to enforce."

Currently, the following states have some type of law against online gambling: Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and, of course, Washington.

To my knowledge, there has not been one prosecution in those states that make it unlawful to play online poker in their state.

On March 28, 2006, the state of Washington passed a law prohibiting Internet gambling, which went into effect on June 7, 2006. The Washington bill upgrades online gambling from a misdemeanor to a Class C felony.

This offensive, overbearing law is unconstitutional and needs to be challenged in a Washington court. Besides the fact that it attempts to legislate morality, the law is inconsistent with other Washington laws that allow gambling in bricks-and-mortar casinos. The prohibition does not include online horserace wagering, so that certain forms of online gambling are still legal, where the state makes money. These issues will have to be hammered out in court.

Furthermore, the sentencing scheme is ridiculous. Playing poker online in Washington has been deemed a class C felony, punishable by an amount not to exceed $10,000 and/or confinement in a state correctional institution for up to five years.

Other Class C felonies in Washington include certain degrees of rape, child molestation, stalking, bestiality, making deadly threats, failure to register as a sex offender, theft, assault on a child, custodial sexual misconduct, sex and labor trafficking etc. The list goes on.

This means that under Washington law, a penny-ante poker player could ostensibly receive the same sentence as one involved in certain types of child molestation. This violates the Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishment, which essentially means that a sentence cannot be disproportionate to the crime.

Regardless of what we all think about this barbaric Washington law, it currently exists. Hopefully, not for long. Recently, Rep. Chris Strow introduced House Bill 1243, which provides an affirmative defense to this barbaric Washington felony if the defendant committed the offense in his residence. In other words, Rep. Chris Strow is one of the good guys who understands that if we want to play a little poker in our homes, it should not be a crime.

We are at a crossroads where our rights have been threatened and we need to take action. If you live in Washington, you need to make your voice heard there.

Everyone should be a member of the Poker Players Alliance whose lobbyists are working overtime to insure that our personal freedom to play online poker is not taken from us.

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