Poker Player Runs for Governor

Lee Rousso is not only running for governor of the state of Washington. The former gambling legend is also in the process of filing a lawsuit against the state's online gambling ban.

Mr. Rousso first came to public attention in 1982, when he beat the competition of 444 at the MGM Grand in Reno, and won over $83,000. A series of winnings has followed, firmly establishing his name as a prime handicapping specialist.

From Horsetrack to the Web

Rousso's other passion was poker. But it was only in 2003, following the death of his wife, Elaynne, and the example of online poker player Chris Moneymaker who won the WSOP, did Rousso enter the poker world seriously.

"I figured if he could do it, so could I," he said.

100,000 hands later he made it to the WSOP and is working toward winning it some day. Meanwhile, he is also set on the political stage.

Running for Office

Now a law school graduate working as a litigator in the Seattle area, Rousso is running for office as governor of his state. His top obejective, as posted on his website, addresses online gambling heads on: He vows to:

Restore sanity to Washington's gambling laws by incorporating the principle of player immunity. This will make Washington's law consistent with federal law. NO PRISON FOR POKER!

In accordance with the political campaign, Rousso is pursuing a lawsuit against the state, alleging that its ban fails to comply with the federal Wire Act, according tow hich no criminal liability is attributed to players.

In other words, playing poker online is not a felony.

A ban that de facto protects the state's own gambling operations is also unconstitutional, for it is protectionist in nature.

Meanwhile...

The state has asked Rousso to supply information it claimed was relevant, a request that Rousso has appealed against, and all in all took four months for the court to decide to move the case back down to a lower court.

The case, interesting on both personal and political levels, much like Rousso's personality, has yet to produce a clear decision, a notion that Rousso himself addressed:

"Somewhere, sometime, a court is going to have to decide if states can regulate Internet gambling. It's inevitable, so it may as well be this case."