Has anyone been prosecuted?

I live in Washington State where online gambling has been made illegal.
I was told, a little while ago, that there was a news article, on tv, that someone had been prosecuted for playing poker online.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to this story?

BogieFoot said:

I live in Washington State where online gambling has been made illegal.
I was told, a little while ago, that there was a news article, on tv, that someone had been prosecuted for playing poker online.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to this story?

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I used to live in Seattle, long before there was any such thing as on-line poker. IMO the Washington State ban on poker is a hypocritical piece of legislation. Live poker is okay, but somehow when you play it on-line it becomes immoral? This law is nothing more than a quid pro quo to the Indian casinos and their lobbyists. I'm sure the Casinos would love to see someone prosecuted for this but it would be a nightmare for any DA.

I think you would be safe... it's a lot like downloading MP3s, it's "illegal" but those who do it never get busted. There are bigger fishes to fry.

If they have time to trace people playing poker online in WA than they have way too much time on their hands and it is no wonder why the US is going down hill fast. I would play until they told me to stop. Good luck.

I found this, no one has been prosecuted.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/271844_internetgambling27.html

Beginning next month, Washington residents who play poker or make most other types of wagers on the Internet will be committing a Class C felony, equivalent under the law to possessing child pornography, threatening the governor or torturing an animal.

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That's just ludicrous..

It's basically a poorly written law that was intended to stop people from hosting gambling sites. It unintentionally gave the same penalties to someone who is merely a user of one of those sites. Right now the spirit of the law is understood and nobody is actively seeking to prosecute anyone for gambling, but of course that could always change so you're taking a risk. My guess is the first thing that would happen is they'd pressure ISPs to start blocking traffic to gambling sites or maybe just put out press releases warning people to stop before they'd actually prosecute anyone.

From the state's website:
http://www.wsgc.wa.gov/faq/internet_gambling.pdf

Enforcement​

Enforcement is focused on larger, higher level Internet gambling activities, such as gambling sites and service providers.
Players gambling on the Internet, whether playing poker, slots or other gambling games, run a risk of a felony conviction. If players’ names appear in an operator’s seized records, the Gambling Commission would likely send the player a warning letter, notifying them that betting on the Internet is a felony. If a player’s name appears again, charges may be filed. There is not an active campaign against regular players.​

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I wouldn't worry about it too much.

If you are caught, how will they know if you're gambling, you could be playing a freeroll, then what, sorry we're going to prosecute you for playing in a money poker tournament that costed you nothing to enter?
Are they going to install Pokertracker into your computer to see if you spent any money on sites like Full Tilt poker, which they can't do.
Do you know how embarassing this will be for the attorney general?

I'd worry more if you were living in Kentucky than in Washington.