Washington State Bans Online Gambling

In the ongoing battle of Internet poker and online casino gambling, the state of Washington passed a law banning online gambling making it illegal for any resident inside of the state to participate in online casino play.

If you are a resident in the state of Washington, and you are caught in the act of online wagering, you could face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The legislation, Senate Bill 6613, has turned online gambling into a Class C Felony. This severe type of felony is generally reserved for the prosecution of sex offenders who fail to register with the state.

Poker players across the state are angry, confused, and even slightly offended about the passage of the legislation. The state of Washington has 65 casinos and card rooms spread across the state, and even a state lottery, yet online gambling has been axed. There is much confusion and debate revolving around the fact that the state has both brick and mortar casinos and a state lottery.

Things seemed to move very quickly when the bill was put on the fast track and sent up to the governor, Democrat Christine Gregoire. The House received the bill on February 16th, and a mere few weeks later, it was passed by a vote of 93 to 5, and put into effect. In addition to banning online wagering, the bill also put a halt to the effort to allow the state lottery to be offered online.

Overturning the legislation probably won’t be easy. To overturn the bill and get the law changed would require a 60% majority vote by both houses of the state legislature, which would not be easy. Both residents and onlookers from other states feel that the ban of online gambling is a ban on freedom of choice and is an insult to poker players everywhere.

The issue of banning online gambling has been floating around Congress for a while now, but it seems that Congress decided that these types of decisions are better suited for government control on the state level, as opposed to the national level. In the past several weeks, a handful of well respected professional poker players have gone before Congress and stated their arguments in terms of supporting online gambling for any American who wishes to participate, whether it be for recreation or on a more serious level.

The thought of online poker players in the state of Washington receiving the same punishment as sex offenders is extremely offensive, not to mention absurd, and it’s causing a stir in the online poker community. There are plans in action to attempt to overturn the legislation, but, as of now, the bill has been passed.

Character Planet: the Exclusive Network for Online Gamers

CharacterPlanet, the online gaming social network for gamers, by gamers has just released Gamer Blogs. The system was developed by CharacterPlanet in order to address a need for gamers to easily express themselves to the online gaming community. Gamer Blogs is a system where any member can create their own blog, give it a name with a unique URL, and start posting entries immediately. Members can even add their google adsense code and make some real money off the popularity of their blog. The system also allows members to vote on entries which will give the entire Blog an overall score as well.

“Before building this system I listened to the input of the community and in the end the system most people wanted was something similar to Google’s blogging system, Blogger.com,” said Dan Anton, CEO of CharacterPlanet. “I agreed and developed my Game Blog system with Blogger as my inspiration.”

Thanks to Game Blogs, the members of CharacterPlanet can really feel a sense of ownership with their blogs. Sure the internet is full of blogging sites you can use, but the great thing about Gamer Blogs is that the people viewing these blogs are all intersted in the same thing; online gaming. Blogs here range from talking about your in game experiences as a hobbit in Lord of the Rings Online to ranting about PvP balance issues in the well known MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

Other great features already available at CharacterPlanet.com include a player driven news submission system where members can vote on the entries, which is known as Power Leveling the News or Player Killing it, respectively.

You’ll also find plenty of real life and character pictures along with detailed profiles to match; Web based multiplayer games like the “Race Track” to kill time and also win points, which can be turned in for prizes such as Gift Cards to EBGames.com.

CharacterPlanet.com offers much more, but I suggest signing up for a free account and being part of the fastest growing online gaming community. CharacterPlanet continues to develop new features and tools where the gamers have the power. Using Web 2.0 technology it is Dan Anton’s mission to listen to the needs of the gamers and give them what they want. According to Dan, there are some very big projects in development, which the members of CharacterPlanet are sure to love. http://www.characterplanet.com – Where Gamers have the Power.

Top 10 Online Casinos

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