Supreme Court rules against Betcha.com
Internet Community & Entertainment Corp., d/b/a Betcha.com v. State, No. 82845-8. Internet Community & Entertainment Corporation launched a website called Betcha.com -- a person-to-person betting site that allowed users to post wagers on the outcomes of a wide variety of events. Betcha.com charged its customers a fee for user transactions. Losing bettors had up to 72 hours after a winning claim was made to choose not to pay the loss.
In 2007, the Washington State Gambling Commission informed the company that Betcha.com was engaged in illegal gambling. The company sued the state seeking a declaratory judgment that its social wagering site does not violate state law. Betcha.com lost at superior court. On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that Betcha.com had not “gambled” because bettors understood that the losing bettor might not honor the debt.
The Supreme Court, with Justice Tom Sanders writing the unanimous opinion, reversed the Court of Appeals. The state Gambling Act prohibits bookmaking, which is defined as “accepting bets, upon the outcome of future contingent events, as a business or in which the bettor is charged a fee or ‘vigorish’ for the opportunity to place a bet.” RCW 9.46.0213. The court concluded that Betcha.com’s entire business model was based on charging fees from users for the opportunity to place a bet. Based on the conclusion that Betcha.com was engaged in prohibited bookmaking, the court declined to address whether the site’s users are actually engaged in gambling.
This decision says more about Americans' loss of freedom and the personal moral corruption of our elected and unelected leaders than anything else they could have said or done.
That Americans in WA who choose to gamble are FORCED at the point of a gun (the rule of law) to do it at the whim and will of Indian tribes and their backers is anathema to American freedom.
Change must happen. Choices are being taken from us every day. Each of those stolen choices is another freedom lost. How far to the Rubicon?