WA wants to control what you write about on the Internet

The first casualty in the state's war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling.

-- Danny Westneat, Seattle Times columnist

Washington residents may have heard that the state recently enacted a law specifically making gambling at online casinos a crime. This is not the problem -- at least not for me. If you must pay the Stupid Tax, support your local Native American tribes.

The Washington State Gambling Commission has decided that writing about online gambling "in a way that seems promotional" is also illegal. It was enough to cause one Web site operator to shut down his casino review site. They're also telling The Seattle Times that their poker column may also be illegal.

The state is defining illegal as merely linking to a site where online gambling might be practiced or otherwise promoted. Let me repeat that: The state of Washington now regulates how and where its residents may link to other Internet resources.

I have a big problem with this. I hope that any other Washington resident would have a big problem with this, too.

First, I plan on writing to the ACLU and the EFF to say LOLWTF. I'd love to hear what they have to say about this attempt to regulate speech.

Next, I plan to submit this information and whatever I can find regarding the now-shuttered site to the folks at Chilling Effects.

After that, the next step would be to write to the gambling commission to ask them why they think they have been given the authority to act as thought police.

Once that letter has been finished, I'll write my representative in Olympia to ask what he or she thinks about the actions of this state bureaucracy. I shamefully admit I have been rather lax in paying attention to state politics. No more.

If you are a Washington resident, and if you care at all about a government agency trying to regulate your speech, then I implore you to do the same.