Lift ban on Washington signups

[Walla Walla]

Greg,
Come on let me sign up this year. No one here in Washington state will know. They're all out planting reefer.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Greg,
Come on let me sign up this year. No one here in Washington state will know. They're all out planting reefer.

Colorado is ahead of Washington, John.
We legalized weed AND tried to secede from the United States.
No fantasy? That's grounds for seceding by itself!

[KJ Duke]

Greg,
Come on let me sign up this year. No one here in Washington state will know. They're all out planting reefer.

Colorado is ahead of Washington, John.
We legalized weed AND tried to secede from the United States.
No fantasy? That's grounds for seceding by itself!

The US is far too big to manage, it should be at least a dozen countries with a common regional defense agreement in place. Everyone would have a lot more freedom over what kind of "country" they wanted to live in.

[Edwards Kings]

Colorado is ahead of Washington, John.
We legalized weed AND tried to secede from the United States.
No fantasy? That's grounds for seceding by itself!

The US is far too big to manage, it should be at least a dozen countries with a common regional defense agreement in place. Everyone would have a lot more freedom over what kind of "country" they wanted to live in.

We had the same idea...in 1861...didn't work out so well...

But I like the legalized marijuana part in Colorado...especially with the 25% tax (too low?). I suspect we will see ancillary taxes in the future (12.5% pizza tax, 35% Slim-Jim tax, etc.).

[Glenneration X]

Colorado is ahead of Washington, John.
We legalized weed AND tried to secede from the United States.
No fantasy? That's grounds for seceding by itself!

The US is far too big to manage, it should be at least a dozen countries with a common regional defense agreement in place. Everyone would have a lot more freedom over what kind of "country" they wanted to live in.

We had the same idea...in 1861...didn't work out so well...

But I like the legalized marijuana part in Colorado...especially with the 25% tax (too low?). I suspect we will see ancillary taxes in the future (12.5% pizza tax, 35% Slim-Jim tax, etc.).

The state flag of the state Doughy, KJ, and EdWAD would like to live in.

[KJ Duke]

We had the same idea...in 1861...didn't work out so well...

In 1861 the US population was smaller than current California. Imagine if the NFBC ran just one massive league ... no separate main event, 12-teamer, Diamond, DC's, slow drafts, everyone's preferences had to be taken into account for one gigantic, mediocre league structure that no one liked. But we all played anyway because there was no alternative.

As for the civil war, that was more like Greg and Tom breaking us free from Fanball oppression.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg,
Come on let me sign up this year. No one here in Washington state will know. They're all out planting reefer.

Well, John, I can say that we are making progress with some legislators in Iowa and Arizona. If we can find success there, maybe Washington would be next. But your state is more concerned with protecting the state lottery and the Indian casinos than the fantasy players, so good luck.

Give me a call or drop me an email sometime to discuss. It's been a while and we'd all like to have another NFBC Charter Member back with us in Las Vegas. They can't stop you from doing that!!

[Walla Walla]

Greg, I booked a flight for the second weekend. Why I don't have a clue. Maybe I can team up with someone. If not I can walk around and sweep up and hand out towels. I couldn't be an auctioneer though. I'd say something like " Are you crazy he's not worth more than a buck!".

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg, I booked a flight for the second weekend. Why I don't have a clue. Maybe I can team up with someone. If not I can walk around and sweep up and hand out towels. I couldn't be an auctioneer though. I'd say something like " Are you crazy he's not worth more than a buck!".

Having a co-manager as the principle owner who isn't from Washington is the way to go, John. Now you're talkin'. Glad to have you back with us on the Second Weekend in Las Vegas. You'll love seeing the old gang again.

[Greg Ambrosius]

John, you have to explain your state to me. So they won't allow anyone in the state of Washington to play fantasy sports, yet it's okay for 334 retail stores to legally sell pot in the state. What's up there?

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10 ... sales?lite

Is Washington a liberal state, ultra conservative or just protecting their Indian casinos and state lottery with the harshness toward fantasy sports? I'm surprised more folks in the state don't make a stink over the fantasy sports language. Crazy.

[Rainiers]

Washington politics are controlled by high-tax liberals that have no moral issues with vices. If you are going to do whatever, fine, they just want a huge cut of the action. (Unless you are Native American, then they feel sorry for you and are OK with you keeping the profits.)

Sin taxes there are always among the highest in the country. Washington's tax on pack of cigarettes is the fourth highest in the nation and it's liquor tax is so high that it's liquor tax revenues match the state of California, which has 5 times as many people. The compounded-marijuana-tax rate, from grower to distributor to retail is 112%, as compared to Colorado's 22%, a whopping five-fold difference. I wonder what the state would want if they ever tried to legalize prostitution.

Not sure if you want to try and legalize fantasy sports in Washington. They will just want to tax the heck out of fantasy sports one way or another and perhaps set a bad example for other states to follow.

[Money]

Washington politics are controlled by high-tax liberals that have no moral issues with vices. If you are going to do whatever, fine, they just want a huge cut of the action. (Unless you are Native American, then they feel sorry for you and are OK with you keeping the profits.)

Sin taxes there are always among the highest in the country. Washington's tax on pack of cigarettes is the fourth highest in the nation and it's liquor tax is so high that it's liquor tax revenues match the state of California, which has 5 times as many people. The compounded-marijuana-tax rate, from grower to distributor to retail is 112%, as compared to Colorado's 22%, a whopping five-fold difference. I wonder what the state would want if they ever tried to legalize prostitution.

Not sure if you want to try and legalize fantasy sports in Washington. They will just want to tax the heck out of fantasy sports one way or another and perhaps set a bad example for other states to follow.

Am I missing something here? I thought this state has no state income tax, if that's the case they have no choice but to tax the heck out of everything else. There has to be a trade off somewhere. I'm not much of a political guy though.

[Rainiers]

Washington politics are controlled by high-tax liberals that have no moral issues with vices. If you are going to do whatever, fine, they just want a huge cut of the action. (Unless you are Native American, then they feel sorry for you and are OK with you keeping the profits.)

Sin taxes there are always among the highest in the country. Washington's tax on pack of cigarettes is the fourth highest in the nation and it's liquor tax is so high that it's liquor tax revenues match the state of California, which has 5 times as many people. The compounded-marijuana-tax rate, from grower to distributor to retail is 112%, as compared to Colorado's 22%, a whopping five-fold difference. I wonder what the state would want if they ever tried to legalize prostitution.

Not sure if you want to try and legalize fantasy sports in Washington. They will just want to tax the heck out of fantasy sports one way or another and perhaps set a bad example for other states to follow.

Am I missing something here? I thought this state has no state income tax, if that's the case they have no choice but to tax the heck out of everything else. There has to be a trade off somewhere. I'm not much of a political guy though.

Joe,

You are correct...no income tax. Valid points about the tradeoffs...There is a high 9% sales tax, a 1.5 % B&O tax on all levels of wholesale transactions, etc, property taxes, various excise taxes as well as being charged for many many things, ie fees in lieu of taxes...park fees, misc. school fees, dmv fees, environmental fees, licences fees, heck our business is charged a fee to not get a certain DOE license!

But, of course, there is no getting around the fact that zero revenue from income tax does contribute to the motivation of Washington politicians to get the most out of the sin taxes. And conversely, It does motivate the politicians to keep out the sins that do not contribute to the state's bottom line, if only to prevent them from competing with the lines of business that do...in this case horse racing, lotteries, punch cards, non Indian casinos and card rooms.

But back to Greg's original question, I don't believe that there is a significant and organized political movement to prevent gambling per se., as in a conservative moral-value-based objection to fantasy sports. Quite the contrary, participating in cash fantasy leagues is a widely accepted activity. Everyone plays, the laws are not enforced and because of that there is no groundswell for changing the laws.

As for the politicians, I think there could be a fear that there is no regulatory setup to keep the fantasy sports industry in check and prevent it from become a pseudo-online sports book. There is also no proposed tax structure for fantasy sports to tempt and motivate the politicians to act to at least allow a legal, regulated version of it. And with no groundswell and no revenue proposal I doubt anything will happen anytime soon to change the state's legal scenery in regards to fantasy sports.

Robert