Washington Candidate Wants Online Poker Law Changed

Last month, Lee Rousso threw his hat into the ring for the gubernatorial race in the state of Washington. He will try to win the August primary against current Governor Christine Gregoire, who he voted for in 2004, but has decided to try to seize the party’s nomination from because of the hard stance she’s taking against online poker.

In March of 2006, Gregoire signed a law that makes it a Class C felony to play online poker in her state. This puts online poker players in the same category in her eyes as people who possess child pornography, threaten the governor, or torture animals.

This rankles Rousso to the core. Rousso, a Renton, Washington, attorney, is attempting to erase this law from the books by challenging it in a court of law. A few weeks ago, he told CardPlayer.com that if he’s unable to win his challenge in the courts, he would try to accomplish it politically. This is his fight.

“I’m just upset beyond words that a law like that in a country like this could become a law. It’s just flat out wrong,” Rousso said.

His campaign goal is to contend for the nomination through the primary in August, but his ultimate goal is to get this law stricken from the books. Rousso, the Poker Players Alliance’s director for the state of Washington, says he’s heard zero negative feedback from Washington State residents about his stance.

“You just can’t even find people who think that this law is a good idea,” Rousso said. “Even people who are opposed to gambling in general recognize that this law goes way, way, way too far.”

Rousso has background in wagering. He was a horse-betting handicapper for 17 years, a career that started when he was 24 when he won $83,000 at a horse-racing handicapper competition in Reno. He repeated the feat a few years later, and he took the money and went to law school. He now practices law in Renton.

Rousso, a lifetime Democrat, hopes to attract both media attention to how utterly ridiculous he thinks the online poker law is, as well as Republican voters in the primary. Dino Rossi, the Republican candidate, is running unopposed and does not need the votes in the primary. In Washington State, voters can vote for whoever they choose in the primary and don’t have to follow party lines.

He hopes Republicans who are disgusted with the Democrat governor’s policies will get behind Rousso, and, if they give him the nomination, he can at least showcase how wrong the current law on online poker is in Washington State.

In fact, Rousso says he would quit his campaign if the state legislator would revisit and wipe the offending SB 6613 off of the books.

“The reason I announced [my campaign] in January when I did, the first day of the legislative session, is I’m hoping to shake up the legislature and get them to revisit the issue during this legislative session,” Rousso said. “If I could get the law changed, I would pack up my tent and go home, because I would consider mission accomplished.”  

Rousso’s campaign information can be found at leeroussoforgovernor.org. Interested people can volunteer and donate to the grassroots campaign he has started from scratch.

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