Betcha Deemed Illegal By Washington Supreme Court

Betcha, an online gambling website, got its start online in 2007. Since that time, owners of the site have been doing their best to create a legalized internet gambling portal. Individuals are (or were) able to wager on all manner of things and had the option of paying for their bets if and when they lost. Those that chose not to pay off their bets would receive negative feedback by the other members. The site owners thought that their site would be deemed legal because individuals did not have to pay for their bets.

The powers that be in Washington State, where the site is based, however, determined that the site was not in fact, legal. Initially, the courts rule against Betcha. That decision was overturned on appeal. The State Supreme Court, however, disagreed with the findings of the appeal courts and decided that Betcha was in fact, in legal, on a vote of 9-0.

 Here is a partial reading of the opinion: The court’s opinion makes it clear that expansive anti-gambling laws leave almost no room for entrepreneurial yet legal Internet gambling enterprises. Here, Betcha is tripped up by the definition of “bookmaking,” 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.” This strikes at Betcha’s model of charging the parties to communicate with each other regarding betting. The court is not swayed by Betcha’s formalist argument that because the loser could renege on the bet, the wager did not meet the statutory definitions for gambling. The court says the bookmaking definition applies whether the bets are made for money or not.

Source:techdirt.com

 

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