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WA Law Means Linking to Gambling Websites Illegal
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Jun 16, 2006 03:15 PM
from the don't-click-the-bad-links dept.
from the don't-click-the-bad-links dept.
tpoker writes "Following a previous story on Washington State making online gambling a felony, the Seattle Times reports that the first legal salvos have begun. 'The first casualty in the state's war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling. What a Bellingham man did on his site was write about online gambling. He reviewed Internet casinos. He had links to them, and ran ads by them. All that, says the state -- the ads, the linking, even the discussing -- violates a new state law barring online wagering or using the Internet to transmit 'gambling information ... Telling people how to gamble online, where to do it, giving a link to it -- that's all obviously enabling something that is illegal.'"
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Plus Side? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Plus Side? (Score:3, Informative)
Don't count on it. WA state laws have no effect on blogs and/or bloggers located in other states, much less the activities of casinos
Re:Plus Side? (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't count on it. WA state laws have no effect on blogs and/or bloggers located in other states
Don't count on that. Each state, via Article IV (section 2) of that fantastic federal constitution of ours provides for extradition between states, it is st
Re:Plus Side? (Score:3, Informative)
No, but in that case it's up to federal law enforcement to deal with it. As soon as they cross outside of the state o
Re:Plus Side? (Score:3, Informative)
IE., a prosecuter in WA can decide that the Nevada site www.poker-n-prostitutes.com [not real (I hope)] violates the WA statute & initiate an e
By all means... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe this will provide some legal leverage to go after people who spam blogs and forums with adds for online poker, etc?
By all means, let's attack free enterprise and free speech, let's start with this internet site which promotes gambling. [walottery.com]
Re:Plus Side? (Score:3)
Unconstitutionality approaching. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unconstitutionality approaching. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unconstitutionality approaching. (Score:2)
Re:Unconstitutionality approaching. (Score:4, Funny)
Bets? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bets? (Score:3, Interesting)
Writing a novel where one of the characters is involved in online gambling is illegal.
Oh, and since bank robbery is illegal, writing stories (online or in print) about bank robbers and the (fictional) details about how they did it will be ill
Breakin' the law (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hope you guess my name? (Score:3, Informative)
Supreme Court? (Score:2)
Re:Supreme Court? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, they just got rid of Knock-and-Announce for all intents and purposes (for a cute current USSC highlight), so the question isn't what they are going to do. The question is how much. I dunno, you wanna take bets on how badly they bone the First Amendm
Re:Supreme Court? (Score:2)
Shades of the MPAA versus 2600 Magazine anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know, there are some differences, but still, I don't think that referencing something should necessarily be a crime. I'm sure that there are exceptions, where people are being made victims by directing others to certain places, but this just seems extreme.
Re:Shades of the MPAA versus 2600 Magazine anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)
The current paradigm is throw a wide net, round them all up, and let prosecutors sort them out afterwards. It's the new-and-improved shotgun methodology of law enforcement. And it works! They are almost guaranteed to catch somebody doing something naughty. Once I was arrested during a protest at a university, and charged with 'Disturbing the Peace' along with several other folks. Only later did they realize that in the great state that I live in, the statute forbids them from using DtP for civil disobedience cases. So, after the arrest, they cast about for some other statutory violation to make stick (they failed). I imagine most of the system operates approximately as sloppily.
By the logic of WA lawmakers... (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of when AOL added the word "breast" to their filters without thinking through the consequences. All the members of a breast cancer group suddenly had to start referring to themselves as survivors of "hooter cancer".
Re:By the logic of WA lawmakers... (Score:2)
Same deal with the cervical cancer groups. The filters discriminated against both hooter and cooter!
Re:By the logic of WA lawmakers... (Score:3, Informative)
There are no bad words. Only fucking idiots.
KFG
Re:By the logic of WA lawmakers... (Score:3, Informative)
That seems like a violation of free speech, (Score:3, Interesting)
As a UK Tax payer... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd like to thank the US for these restrictive laws that prevent US companies making money out of internet gambling.
Ahh the wonder of the US... legal to buy a gun... illegal to bet $10.
Keep up the good work, why not try prohibition again as well?
Re:As a UK Tax payer... (Score:3, Informative)
You do realize this is a law in one state [census.gov] out of the fifty states () that make up the United States of America... a state the represents abo
Re:As a UK Tax payer... (Score:3, Informative)
We did. We changed its focus, thinking that would make a difference somehow.
Columbia thanks us.
KFG
Re:As a UK Tax payer... (Score:3, Insightful)
It will be completely ok for the Gov't and States to completely screw us over?
gambling information (Score:4, Insightful)
> information
You're telling me that hosting a site with the fact that opposing sides of a dice add up to 7 is now a criminal offence in parts of the USA?
Land of the free, indeed. Whatever happened to doing whatever you wanted unless it hurt someone else?
Sounds a lot like the DMCA... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sounds a lot like the DMCA... (Score:2, Informative)
Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Another freedom, chipped away... And this one during the Clinton Administration. Sad for all of us.
Are they gonna arrest the newspapers? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's using the internet to transmit gambling information.
Who is this law trying to save? (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon... of all victimless crimes, does online gambling really need legislation? Tax it like Nevada and be done with it.
I mean... Washington has a state lottery. That means they endorse gambling. It can't be gambling that they hate... I think they hate all gambling where the state isn't the house.
Re:Who is this law trying to save? (Score:3, Informative)
It's intention is to save tax dollars. Every state in the US collects taxes from any legal casinos, bingo parlors, etc. located within their borders (this includes any casinos on indian reservations). Since these on-line ca
TV censorship coming to WA (Score:5, Insightful)
HA! (Score:5, Funny)
Why stop at one? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can actually see how the legislators could see a reason to do that. Taxpayer X wants to link to a gambling site, but knows that that's illegal. So he links to a site that has links to gambling sites, and tells you to click through. (Even worse, maybe that link redirects to the gambling site!) So clearly this needs to be stopped as well.
And what about linking to a page that links to a page that links to a page that links to gambling?
vice laws (Score:5, Insightful)
Online Petition Started (Score:3, Informative)
freedom of speech (Score:3)
I don't mind people deciding what kind of regulations they
want to have on gambling. There is a type of addiction some people
can have to it which argues for some restrictions, but I would do my utmost to oppose stopping someone from talking about it.
It is crossing a line and is undoubtedly unconstitutional.
then again I'm not sure that has stopped people when it came to the DMCA.
I don't like Nazi's but I'll support their right to tell people what they believe.
I don't like abortionist but I'll support their legal right to tell people what they believe.
What the conservatives pushing these laws don't realize is they are enabling the same kind of thing as the Canadian 'anti-hate speech' legislation which has made it very difficult to talk about the 'immorality' of homosexuality.
(something I'd be pretty certain they would not want to see happen here.)
in some ways they are cutting their own throats.
the problem is that not enough people are united on a topic everyone should agree on.
I may not support what you say but I am certainly going to support you right to say it.
I wonder if anyone has ever considered if the political spectrum is more like a circle then a line. The closer you get to the far left or the far right the more you resemble the opposite.
Myself I oppose Fascism I don't care if it is couched as 'conservative values' or 'broad minded liberal ideas'
Re:freedom of speech (Score:3, Informative)
He didn't cross the line until he explicitly linked to one.
High Times doesn't get in any trouble for tal
Great argument (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, fantastic. So you can follow this up by making guns, knives, shovels, cars, bleach, and God knows what else illegal since they're obviously enabling murder. Oh, and we may as well outlaw crime mystery books since they provide information on how to do illegal things. But let's not stop at burning just crime mystery novels. We ought to burn chemistry books since that knowledge can be used to create poisons and explosives. And let's outlaw cars because criminals are notorious for using cars in their getaways. I see no reason to stop there, though. I can think of a lot of other stuff we ought to just outlaw today!
stupidity (Score:3, Funny)
Time to raid the server farms everyone.
(how to get your competing server farm or web host if they are located in WA).
1) rent from the space
2) but up gambling sight ( using IP routed through foreign country.)
3) report to WA the violation ( rinse repeate).
Thus driving up your competitors operating costs because now they have to monitor every sight they host or be shut down.
( i know I know not that terribly realist but the thought was funny
Legal Gambling Website in Washington (Score:5, Interesting)
Indian lands (Score:3, Insightful)
It's nice to see Washington State... (Score:3, Funny)
What about state run lotteries? (Score:3, Insightful)
Last I checked, playing the lottery is a form of gambling. Their own site gives info on how to play, winning numbers, etc.
Does the law not apply to them as well?
RD
Re:Wow! Holy Free Speech Violation Batman (Score:5, Insightful)