Ron: Harsh ramifications for online gambling in Washington are foolish

FanDuel and DraftKings remain in the headlines as online gaming comes under fire in America.

“It seems like some of the gambling rules are archaic, and were made when we didn’t have electronic gambling,” said KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill.

But authorities across the nation are coming to a different conclusion. The New York attorney general is the latest to determine that online fantasy sports is illegal gambling.

Related: Washington makes small step to legalize fantasy football

It’s the same story in Washington. Patrons from poker players to slot machine enthusiast therefore flock to casinos on tribal reservations to play a game.

“I think we need to have a control-alt-delete moment in America and ask, ‘Do you have a philosophical problem in placing a wager,'” co-host Ron Upshaw said, further noting that gambling has previously been lumped in with other dangerous vices and that is why it is illegal in some places.

But many of those other vices are legal in some form or another, so why not gambling?

The issue becomes even more confusing for Ron when considering how harsh legal ramifications are for online gambling and online fantasy sports.

“In the State of Washington, it is a class C felony to place a wager online,” Ron said. “Tell me if this makes sense: I can go to countless casinos within 100 miles of where I’m sitting right now and do an activity that is perfectly legal in Washington state. Then if I do the same activity in the privacy of my home, online, I can go to jail for the same amount of time as a pedophile.”

Don can already see the arguments forming around the issue; that people can become addicted to gambling.

“But people have a problem with everything, whether it’s food or alcohol or cigarettes,” Don said. “And while you are enjoying this activity, are you hurting others? And, for the most part, no.”

For Ron and Don, the issue comes down to logic. And logically, making gambling illegal doesn’t add up for them.

The two radio hosts considered the issue as such:

Ron: Let’s say you are Dave Ross and you are going to a show. What does he spend in a night? $300 or $500?

Don: Dave Ross? Like $27 bucks. He knows people. And he knows that there’s free pizza at some shows.

RON: OK, then. John Curley?

Don: $3,000.

Ron: And they derive pleasure from that. How is that any different than someone doing fantasy sports? As a country, do we want to allow adults to spend their entertainment dollars as they want to? If John Curley wants to spend $500 going to a show and a dinner, and Ron Upshaw wants to spend $500 in a poker tournament, what does that have to do with anybody? What does it matter? I hope we can be rational about this. I know we have gaming casinos with a vested interest. Then [have them] run the platform. Everybody pays taxes on it. It can go to funding schools; put some money aside to pay for gambling rehab. But to tell adults that you can’t derive pleasure [online] from an activity that is legal in our state is just ridiculous.