Washington Decides

It seems like the war between the United States government and the online casino industry keeps getting worse and worse. That is the bad news, but the good news is that online casinos have not been deemed completely illegal in most states yet. There is still a huge battle ahead for players as more and more online casinos pull their business out of the United States before they are thrown out. The courts in the state of Washington have been going back and forth on the topic of online casinos and internet gambling. The most recent discussion was whether or not banning online casinos is considered un-constitutional. This argument was rejected by the courts in Washington as they made their final decision recently. There was a law in 2006 that was created which amended the state’s 1873 Gambling Act.

In that case the internet was seen as an illegal way for people to exchange money via online casinos and internet gambling websites. There were many that said that this ban was against the laws of the United States Constitution. The decisions made by the state of Washington made playing at an online casino not just a misdemeanor any more, the punishment became a Class C felony. The representative for the Washington State Poker Player’s Alliance, Lee Rousso, was also the attorney leading the fight against the current laws in Washington. His original accusations stated that the laws were strictly to look out for the best interest of the state because they were protecting the land based casinos and banned any out of state online casino the ability to prosper in their state.

This case in particular went all the way to the appeals courts and the final decision spoke volumes for the online casino industry. The courts said that the decision that they came to was made in order to protect their citizens and avoid everything negative that surrounds gambling at online casinos. Although this decision does not look good for internet gambling, the some of the State’s arguments were rejected so that may leave room for some future legislation to occur.