Seattle Gambling Site Ruled Illegal

The Supreme Court in the US state of Washington has ruled a peer-to-peer betting service to be illegal, settling a dispute over the website that began three years earlier.

Betcha.com was shut down in June 2007 for violating the state's anti-gambling laws.

The website is different from regular betting sites in that it charges a fee for customers to make bets but does not require losers to pay off their bets.

However, Washington state Supreme Court justice Tom Chambers wrote in the court's ruling on September 2 that the practice violated the law because: "Bookmaking is charging a fee for the opportunity to place a bet and the term 'bet' does not require that the bet be honored or betting losses to be paid."

Betcha.com founder Nicholas Jenkins said the court never actually asked the main question, which is whether the site's customers were actually gambling.

The site took bets on all sorts of out-of-the-ordinary questions, such as whether a full moon would appear on a specific night.

Customers were allowed to set their own odds and terms on their bets, and could refuse to pay up within 72 hours of making their selection.

The catch was that by doing so they would lower their honor rating on the website, and other players would be deterred from doing business with them in the future, in similar fashion to eBay's honor system.