State Cracking Down on Online Gambling Guides

Todd Boutte owns and runs the Association of Professional Casino Webmasters, left, and Integrity Casino Guide Web sites from his Whatcom County home. A new Washington state law takes effect June 7 that outlaws online gambling.

Neither of Boutte's Web sites has online gambling, but he says the wording of the law may make his business illegal. Todd Boutte of Bellingham supports his family running an Internet portal Web site that links its visitors to online gambling casinos.

Starting June 7, he'll be risking prosecution as a felon. June 7 is the effective date for new provisions in state gambling law that forbid using the Internet to transmit "gambling information. " The new provisions, overwhelmingly approved by the Legislature, updated an older state gambling statute that already prohibited transmission of gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio and semaphore. They also boosted the penalty, making Internet gambling a felony with a potential maximum penalty of five years in prison. Boutte hopes the state law won't apply to him.

Boutte's theory is that he doesn't take any bets himself and doesn't market the site to gamblers in Washington state. He gets his money from the casinos and other advertisers that are featured on his site, called "Integrity Casino Guide."

Boutte plans to try to avoid problems with state or federal prosecutors by getting the online casinos to send him letters saying they are not paying him with the proceeds of bets illegally placed in this state or nation.

Only about 40 percent of online gambling revenue comes from the U. S. , Boutte said, so he questions state and U. S. jurisdiction over him if he gets paid out of the other 60 percent.

June 2, 2006
Posted By Michelle Johnson
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!