Lawyer Takes on Washington State

Last spring, the state of Washington made it a felony for its residents to gamble online, placing online poker players in the same category as child pornographers.  On Friday, attorney and poker buff Lee Rousso sued the state as the beginning of an effort to repeal the ban. 

Rousso believes that the anti-online gambling law is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause, which provides for open market competition across state borders, as it prohibits states from passing protectionist laws that would hurt other states’ businesses.  According to Rousso, the law is protectionist because it was enacted to shield the state’s gambling industry from the encroachment of popular internet sites.   

Of course, the state feels that the law was put into place to make put Washington in compliance with the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, but Rousso does not feel that it did that.  It did ban online sports betting, which is part of the Wire Act, but the rest of the law was unnecessarily broad, as it made poker illegal, as well.  Nobody has been prosecuted under the new law, but many online gambling sites have decided to block residents of Washington from creating accounts. 

Rousso feels that he definitely has a chance to win, but if he loses, he will continue to try to get the law repealed by the state legislature.