Full Tilt Poker is the second major site in as many months to announce that they are no longer accepting players from the state of Washington due to "recent legal developments," which was essentially the Washington State's Supreme Court decision to uphold the state's internet gambling ban. This law, instituted in 2006, actually makes it a felony to play online poker in the state.

Common Questions

Full Tilt provides a FAQ of answers to common questions about the move. Highlights include:

--Players are not required to cashout. Washington State players will still be able to play if they are outside of Washington State when they are playing. This seems to be a loophole that will undoubtedly be exploited. Also, non-Washington State players will be unable to play during the time they visit the state.
--Players who wish to use any unused tournament tickets or tournament dollars can convert to cash by emailing wa.state@fulltiltpoker.com
--Players will be able to exchange any FTPs and medals for merchandise (tournament tickets and bonuses are obviously not available)
--Players can request Black Card and Iron Man VIP statuses be reinstated if they move or if the legal situation changes.

Any other player related questions can be directed to wa.state@fulltiltpoker.com.

Poker Stars: Leading By Example

Poker Stars had previously announced on September 30th that they would no longer be accepting players from the state. As I alluded to in my blog post about the news, Full Tilt could have either taken the opportunity to absorb the many Poker Stars players who would undoubtedly be taking their play there or follow Poker Stars' lead. They have obviously chosen the latter.

The Future and What To Do

Despite the fact that another major site has decided to not offer their games to Washington state residents, players still have options and undoubtedly will in the future as well. The next most popular networks, in order of traffic according to PokerScout, are Cereus, followed by Cake Poker, Merge Gaming (Carbon Poker), Everleaf (Minted Poker), Bodog and True Poker. I think it's probably a safe bet that some of these sites will eventually ban Washington players as well but it's also probably a safe bet that all will not. Clearly none of these sites have the traffic that Full Tilt does, but many sites do provide comparable rewards and rakeback.

You certainly can't blame any player who chooses not to play poker in the state of Washington due to the (ridiculously harsh) penalties they could possibly face. However, the consensus view seems to be that they are very unlikely to actually enforce the law that puts poker players in the same class as sex offenders.

Full Tilt recommends any Washington player upset about this development contact the PPA, a non-profit organization fighting for the rights of poker players, online and live. The PPA has been attributed to helping change the general tone in Washington regarding online poker from decidedly negative in 2006 to either neutral or positive now. The USA Congress actually passed a pro poker bill through committee in July. At this point, however, that bill appears to be stalled and barring a miracle, will likely have to be readdressed in the next legislative session starting in January. In the meantime, the fight goes on.