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Poker Law Attacks Info Sources |
A law put into effect earlier this June in the state of Washington made online gambling illegal for all. Though it didn't seem to have much resonance with the local players, it did have an untoward effect on a related type of poker entity: online gambling source websites.
The site under attack was a poker information website (much like this one) that culled stats and bonuses about online casinos for users who were interested in playing online.
The site, Integrity Casino Guide, was stated to be in violation of Washington state law just in the same way that the online casinos themselves were. The owner of the site, Todd Boutte, was informed that he could be charged with class C felony for violation of the law, just by providing this information.
Further ridiculousness ensued when a correllary question was raised in regards to Daniel Negreanu's local poker column in a Washinton state paper. In response to the query, a government official stated that it would probably be a good idea for the paper to quit running the article, in order to avoid possible charges.
This series of litigation has crossed the former boundary of attacking the online casinos in that they are trying to disallow even the mention of gambling in public forums. How this sort of attack on free speech has been allowed to continue and spread rampant in such ways seems absolutely baffling, but the harangue continues.
In a government where even our own represntatives are being arrested (earlier this year in Georgia, a local law man was arrested at a home game), is it not obvious yet how overboard things are getting? Can't we find a better way to spend our tax dollars than chasing down men with pot bellies who want to throw around their extra cash? |
