Washington resident sent cease-and-desist over online casino review site |
Once the law banning online gambling in Washington State went into effect on June 7 of this month, the response to the media was that the state wouldn’t be targeting users. The month isn’t even out and we appear to have our first example of who the state will be going after. Head’s up webmasters in Washington State with online casino advertisements.
The Seattle Times is reporting that a Washington state resident was sent cease-and-desist order over his online casino website (emphasis mine):
Then I heard about Todd Boutte. He’s a former Wal-Mart worker in Bellingham who started a casino review called IntegrityCasinoGuide.com. He worried about the new law but figured he’d be OK because his site has no actual gambling.Not so, said the state. Writing about online gambling in a way that seems promotional can earn a cease-and-desist order, and potentially, a criminal charge. Boutte learned this when a Bellingham Herald article featured state officials saying his site was illegal. He later shut it down and is trying to sell it out of state.
The text of the article is chilling if this is an early indicator. Have the thought police have arrived in Washington state? Who is/will be deciding what “seems promotional” on websites?
Look before leaping
Before getting too excited I decided to visit the Google and WaybackMachine caches for IntegrityCasinoGuide and see what was going on there. Was the guy actively promoting online casinos in exchange for affiliate revenue like say gambling.com? Check out the screenshots below:
Note the Webmaster’s text: “Specializing in honest online casino reviews, Integrity Casino Guide is the premier resource for all of your internet gambling needs and Online Casino Reviews.”
I’m a little disappointed that The Seattle Times didn’t do a little more poking around as their story somewhat sensationalizes how former Walmart employee is having his site ordered taken down and there isn’t even any gambling going on. And yet look at the guy’s site. It’s promoting online gambling, heavily. You’ve seen these type sites. I’ve seen them. And then look at the bottom of the homepage:
Furthermore, the text at the bottom of the homepage:
INTEGRITY CASINO GUIDE IS A MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL CASINO WEBMASTERS
This law sucks but seriously, this webmaster honestly didn’t think the new law would include him when he was entrenched enough in the online gambling scene to be a member of the APCW.org? I didn’t realize that there was such an organization but I’m guessing these people aren’t part of the terrestrial casino scene. And I’m guessing they aren’t there to promote gambling in the local indian casinos or via the State lottery. Am I wrong?
Let’s keep it real here. The sole existence of ‘review’ sites like these is to get people to sign up and gamble online. It’s hard to take up for a webmaster and site like this as being the same as the user spending a few bucks in the privacy of his home.
But this is where I can see the POV of the article and start to get very angry, read on where the Times writes:
Gambling officials told me The Seattle Times may be afoul of the law because we print a poker how-to column, “Card Shark,” by gambler Daniel Negreanu. He sometimes tells readers to hone their skills at online casinos … “My suggestion to you is to remove from your paper any advice about online gambling and any links to illegal sites,” Day said … The state’s gone from trying to control gambling, which is legit, to trying to control people speaking about gambling.
This is getting downright creepy. The hairs on my neck are rising. The Times with a column on poker isn’t the same as a online gambling review site. If we start splitting those kind of hairs, then how long before any website running online gambling ads is breaking the law? Are they already?
Can’t the state find a webmaster who is actually running an online casino to target first? This webmaster wasn’t prosecuted, he was merely sent an order to stop and appears he has complied peacefully (his site shows as “suspended”), but it seems to me that there are still much worse offenders to go after in this state. There has to be.
As for why the state might target an online casino review site? Bellingham is near several terrestrial (indian) casinos. Also you can head up to Canada and find several casinos. Could the tribes be tipping off the cops?
The Times article indicates that “the state plans to hire an investigator to enforce the new law.” Cut to scene of excrement hitting fan.
Did this post make you go hmm?
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Pingback by Blogs of War — June 16, 2006 @ 10:48 pm PST
It’s creepy, but also perfectly understandable. The law may be stupid, but it’s the law. And since there’s a law forbidding on-line gambling there, then telling people to go check an on-line casino is likewise illegal. Just like encouraging people to do all sorts of other illegal things.
The scale is entirely and vastly different, but from a legal perspective a how-tow telling people to go hone their skills in on-line casinos (when that is illegal) is akin to gun manual telling people to go outside and shoot someone to hone their skills, or a sex guide telling people to go outside and practice on anyone who catches their eye in the street. It encourages, explicitly instructs, people to commit what’s officially a crime.
And provides much easier targets to go after…
So it’s really not all that surprising. Not as long as the law is still there forbidding on-line gambling.
The state isn’t “moving to control speaking about gambling”, unless it goes against anyone just reporting about gambling. But if the state’s complaint is about explicit instructions to people to go and break a law, that’s probably well within the state’s rights.
Comment by Yaron — June 19, 2006 @ 1:18 pm PST
[…] For those thinking Washington was the only government with a stick up its butt about online gambling just follow the story of BetOnSports CEO David Curruthers. Er, I mean former CEO, because now USA Today is reporting he’s been axed. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Detained BetOnSports CEO fired — July 25, 2006 @ 11:26 am PST
And here i thought we had a first amendment in our “bill of rights”. The nanny state strikes again. This is a very slippery slope to go down. The reasoning behind this law could be used for anything the government or the bible thumpers don’t like.(like dissent for example) What citizens of a supposedly free country do with their own money from their own homes is not for the state to dictate. If you don’t like gambling then don’t but keep the phony morality and sophistry out of my life!
Comment by j davis — August 1, 2007 @ 1:05 pm PST
Good write up. The whole time I was reading it I thought it was new. Then I noticed it was 2006! Although it certainly applies today as much as ever. I think j davis expressed my own frustration with our government.
“What citizens of a supposedly free country do with their own money from their own homes is not for the state to dictate”
I think eventually, the government will see all the potential tax dollars and work hard to regulate online gaming. If not, gaming bloggers like myself may have to consider moving overseas to escape hard time or worse, laptop confiscation and a permanent ban from the internet.
Comment by Kevin Gamble — June 11, 2008 @ 8:18 pm PST