In June, a new law will take effect in Washington State making Internet gambling a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. It’s the same class of felony reserved for sex offenders.

This particular bill is different from other web gaming prohibitions in that it’s targeted not at online casinos but at gamblers themselves. Participating in a real-money poker room, then, could now get a Washington resident 10 years in prison.

The scary part is figuring out how the state plans to enforce the law. Net gamblers wager within the privacy of their own homes. Are Washington cops going to start kicking down the doors of people they suspect are gambling online? Will they require ISPs to track the online habits of their customers? Will they require banks to turn over transaction information? Heavy-handed surveilance is really the only way to enforce this law.

Probably won’t surprise you to learn that the bill’s sponsor is heavily supported by Washington State’s thriving bricks-and-mortar casino industry.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 8:36 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Gambling and Poker, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.