“The pursuit of happiness:” To one Renton man, that includes the right to play poker online. He makes his argument today (Thursday) in King County Superior Court that a state law that quashes that right is unconstitutional. KUOW’s Phyllis Fletcher reports.

LEE ROUSSO ADMITS ONLINE POKER HAS AN IMAGE PROBLEM. I SHOWED HIM A HEADLINE FROM THE SATIRICAL NEWSPAPER, “THE ONION.”

ROUSSO: “‘Online Gambling Too Depressing To Even Think About.’ That’s pretty funny. Uh, I think what this headline suggests is that people who gamble on the Internet, who play poker on the Internet, are all these losers and shut–ins who, you know, only leave the house once a week to, you know, stock up on groceries but otherwise have no social life, and in reality Internet poker players are just like everybody else.”

BECAUSE THEY WIN SOME, AND LOSE SOME, ROUSSO SAYS. AND BECAUSE SOME ARE BETTER AT IT THAN OTHERS. ROUSSO SAYS HE DIDN’T FILE HIS SUIT ON BEHALF OF THE POKER WEBSITE COMPANIES. HE SAYS HE’S DOING IT FOR GUYS LIKE HIM. HE WON’T ADMIT TO PLAYING POKER ONLINE IN WASHINGTON SINCE IT BECAME ILLEGAL TWO YEARS AGO. BUT HE STILL KNOWS HIS WAY AROUND THE SITE WHERE HE USED TO PLAY. “POKER STARS.”

ROUSSO: “We can go observe an Internet poker site without actually playing. So we are safe here. We don’t have to worry about the State of Washington breaking in and throwing either of us into prison.”

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Author Contact Info: Phyllis Fletcher, KUOW