So I have been back from DC now for a week and really feeling settled in for the first time since the WSOP ended. I left for Vegas at the end of May and came back mid July. That is a long time away from home and I really wanted to just settled back in to my routine in LA. But I turned around less than a week later to head to DC to lobby for the Poker Players Alliance (www.joinpps.org) and for Refugees International and Enough Project (www.refugeesinernational.orgwww.enoughproject.org) . That all went great with movement on both fronts. I am happy to say that Senator Menendez dropped his bill to legalize peer to peer games this week. You can read all about the bill at http://theppa.org/special/s1597/ This kind of movement on the legislative front is huge and is what the PPA has been working towards for the past three years. On the House of Representatives side of things, the frontier is looking rosy as well with Rep. Frank introducing H.R. 2166. http://theppa.org/special/dc/ which calls for the licensing and regulation of the online gaming industry which would bring us in line with hour The UK and 25 other countries handle online gaming. These pieces of legislation both have bipartisan support which shows that this is an issue that crosses party lines because across the board from the standpoint of consumer protection, civil liberties, protection of minors, world trade, etc. UIGEA is just bad government policy and members of both parties are recognizing that. It is really gratifying to see the work that many of us have done taking frequent trips to Capitol Hill to talk to lawmakers coming to fruition. And the support of the over 1 million people who have joined the PPA is responsible for those efforts and the powerful voice that poker players have in our nation’s capital. We should all be patting ourselves on the back for taking action.
On the Sudan front, the people we met with were very receptive to reexamining the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan. It was a very educational day for me listening to Omer Ismail and Melanie Tiff talk about the issues. I am very familiar with how to lobby the poker issue. Watching these passionate individuals talk the Sudan issue was incredible and really reaffirmed my passion for the issue.
After I was done lobbying, my family and I spent the rest of the vacation doing the monuments and Smithsonians. The Holocaust Museum is a must for anyone going to DC. Obviously, it is so moving to see the artifacts and stories from Nazi Germany but they also have a section in there on Sudan and I was able to bring my children through there and touch them about the work that Ante Up for Africa does in a way that just talking to them about it could never do. They have an amazing interactive section of the museum where the kids could read personal stories from people affected by the conflict there. And the fact that it was related to the holocaust really helped bring it home for them. They saw the idea that when we say, “Never again” that we really need to live that because if we let our guards down then “never again” means nothing as it will happen again and again as it has throughout human history.
Anyway, the whole experience was really moving. But we are all happy to be home. And I am ecstatic to be sleeping in my own bed every night, doing Bikram everyday and cooking dinner for my kids in my own kitchen again.
You can be excused for thinking that once the November Nine was set and the WSOP went on hiatus till autumn that poker would enjoy a bit of downtime. Bu that wasn’t the case–the Poker Players Alliance declared July 19-25 “National Poker Week” and took the fight to legalize online poker to Washington, D.C. Thirty of the PPA’s state directors and seven poker players (UltimateBet’s Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Greg Raymer, Dennis Phillips, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher) went to the seats of power in America and spoke directly to members of Congress to make the case for online poker.
And it would seem that elected officials are a bit more inclined to listen to the case for online poker. As Annie Duke said in an interview:
It’s definitely different than a year and a half ago. Then, it was a lot of education and telling people what the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is. Now, I think people are much more familiar with the legislation’s problems. They realize that it’s a piece of legislation that doesn’t work. It’s fortuitous timing with the health care reform because you get to talk about how it’s going to get paid for. When you point out that internet gambling can bring in a conservative estimate of $3 billion per year, they listen.
The events of the week generated quite a bit of interest in your traditional poker news sources, and as several of my poker-media friends were in Washington it was quite amusing to hear about them putting on power suits and trying to tie a Windsor knot for the first time in a decade before marching on the Capitol. But in addition to poker-centric outlets National Poker Week got a lot of play in the mainstream media as well. To start with, PPA Chairman Alphonse D’Amato went on the Howard Stern show and, after chatting with Stern about why he’s so passionate about poker, Howard announced on the air that he’d become a member of the PPA. After the show D’Amato had this to say about Stern signing on:
“I can’t think of a more fitting way to kick off National Poker Week than having my friend, Howard Stern, become a member of the PPA. I thank him for having me on his show this morning and for supporting the PPA’s efforts to protect the freedom of American citizens to play the great game of poker at the time and place of their choosing – a freedom Congress voted to take away… With Howard Stern as a member of the PPA, it shows Congress and the public that protecting Internet poker is about more than just poker – it’s about protecting Internet freedom and personal responsibility.”
But that wasn’t the only time that National Poker Week earned the attention of a major news outlet. On Wednesday PPA Executive Director John Pappas appeared on CNBC, and here’s how host Mark Haines introduced the segment:
“Washington is cracking down on fun! I guess that’s nothing new…”
Pappas appeared opposite Les Bernal, who fronts for an organization called “Stop Predatory Gambling”. As if someone out there is advocating predatory gambling, sheesh. Pappas did some rhetorical ju-jitsu to start with, saying that we need online gaming legalized so that children aren’t preyed upon by unscrupulous operators and adults can play on sites that are regulated and safe. Which left Bernal in a bit of a predicament because his argument is that online poker should NOT be legalized and regulated because that’s the best way to protect the children. That argument didn’t make sense before and Bernal didn’t make it any better during this interview. Bernal also seemed to think that poker players wager money against the house, not against other players, and then he made the bizarre claim that some USB study showed that the online poker business model is “unsustainable…that short-term they made money but long-term they did not”. Uh, what? I searched the Google for that study but found nothing, but to refute Mr. Bernal’s claim I would like to introduce him to…UltimateBet, which is celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary this year. And every year more and more people around the world play online poker. Bizarre. If you’d like to see the bizarreness first hand here’s the segment, with Pappas scoring a decisive TKO:
Greg Raymer did a chat on with the readers of the Washington Post (he had a great line when asked when we could expect a repeal of the UIGEA–”Predicting this stuff is always tough, as politicians are difficult animals to deal with. Animal trainers have it much easier.”). And there was a piece on Newsweek’s site as well. But while generating a lot of media buzz is a good thing, it doesn’t necessarily translate into legislative success. There’s still no guarantee that Congress is going to repeal the UIGEA and legalize online poker, but as you can see the balance of the discussion has definitely swung in our direction. Now it’s the opponents of online poker who are being grilled about why they think law-abiding Americans shouldn’t be allowed to play, it’s Washington who wants to keep Americans from having fun. Members of Congress who perhaps were content with opposing online poker to placate a small number of vocal social conservatives now have to deal with the 1.2 million-member Poker Players Alliance and fed-up constituants who have had enough with the federal government dictating how they can and cannot spend their time and money. Dan Michalski at Pokerati published some numbers from National Poker Week to show how the PPA was able to mobilize it’s membership:
Poker-related letters sent to members of Congress in July 2009: > 150,000
Poker-related letters sent to Congress in 2008: 77,000
Issues other than health care reform that have generated more letters to Congress in 2009 (including war in Iraq, recession, and gas prices): 0
Meetings scheduled between PPA representatives and Congressional offices in a two-day period: 110
At the end of National Poker Week there was a $100 charity tournament to raise money for the USO and wounded veterans. Around 180 people played, including 31 wounded veterans and seven members of Congress. It was a rebuy tournament and many of the professional poker players there rushed around the room re-buying for the soldiers who’d busted out (Annie apparently out-rebought her brother Howard by a 15-10 score). The tournament raised around $35,000 for the USO, people had a great time, and a veteran named Bret Chevalier won the tournament and a trip to Las Vegas. Many of the soldiers who played in the event won their seats in tournaments held at Walter Reed Hospital. Wounded soldiers playing poker in the hospital…a charity tournament to raise money to help them…folks sitting around a poker table having a great time…and there are people who think this is wrong? That the federal government should BAN it? It beggars belief.
But though the passage of the UIGEA was not a shining example of democracy in action, we at least have the opportunity to fight for a repeal of that bad law. Poker players can band together, lobby Congress, and get poker legalized as it should be. Unlike, say, in Russia, where Vladimir Putin the Russian government shut down casinos across the nation this week. At first it was thought that poker, which was classified as a sport in Russia, would be exempted. Ah, nyet–all the poker rooms in Russia were ordered shuttered as well. The government says that this was done because of the pervasive influence of organized crime in the thousands of casinos scattered throughout the country, though one wonders if the Russian Mafia will have any compunctions about opening (even deeper) underground casinos and cardrooms.
The Russian government decreed that gambling will only be permitted in four zones…one of which is in Siberia, while another is near the North Korean border. Those places sound…lovely. And these areas have none of the infrastructure in place to host casinos, the roads, airports, power stations, whatever you need for a major tourist attraction. It’s estimated that 400,000 people were put out of work by this decree, some of whom probably would’ve worked the first stop on this year’s European Poker Tour, which was to be begin August 18th in Moscow. But no more–yesterday it was announced that the tournament has been moved to Kiev, Ukraine.
So perhaps this is an argument that can be used here in the United States–you want to ban poker? That’s what they do in Russia. Jingoistic to be sure, but to get online poker legalized it’ll probably take every arrow in the quiver. The House bill Representative Barney Frank has introduced won’t come up for discussion again until the Congress returns from vacation in September, and then it faces a very crowded legislative docket. In case you haven’t heard there’s talk about national health insurance, the economy still teeters and totters, there are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…legalizing online poker is still way down on the list of priorities. But National Poker Week no doubt did a lot to keep it ON that list, and in these difficult times one would hope that Congress will take a more reasonable and pragmatic look at legalizing the game we love.
The Poker Players Alliance held a press conference this morning to announce some new initiatives and discuss the current legislative state of affairs. PPA Executive Director John Pappas discussed three recently-launched websites that should help further the PPA’s grass-roots recruitment of poker players to the cause:
The PPA announced that July 19-25 will be National Poker Week. At least 35 PPA State Directors and several well-known poker players (including Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher and Dennis Phillips) will be in Washington, D.C. to visit with member of Congress and ask them to support the legalization of online poker. There will also be a charity poker tournament (benefitting the USO and Walter Reed Hospital) and other poker-related activities. So if you have some free time in mid-July, or happen to find yourself in our nation’s capital during that time, mark your calendars.
During National Poker Week PPA representatives will also deliver a petition to President Barack Obama, which you can sign yourself at PokerPetition.com. All you need to do is enter your name, email, and address, and your name will be added to the petition. Pappas said they’re hoping the number of signers is in six-figures–maybe seven–when the petition is presented to the President.
If you’d like to make a more personal statement about poker you can visit My Poker Story and upload a video describing why you play and love the game. A lot of people are passionate about the game (and passionate about their right to PLAY the game) and a brief video explaining how that fervor came to be adds a personal touch to this unnecessarily contentious issue.
Pappas said that there may be additional legislative initiatives introduced before the start of National Poker Week; he said that Senator Robert Menendez may re-introduce his bill to legalize online poker (his is a more narrowly-defined bill than Representative Barney Frank’s House bill). Rep. Frank may hold a hearing on H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, & Enforcement Act of 2009 (whew) which would give online poker’s legislative defenders a chance to debate their opponents in public. And further sway public opinion in poker’s direction.
PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato was at the press conference (and as we speak he’s playing in today’s Senior’s Event, his first WSOP tournament) and said that the legislative effort is going forward and that while Rep. Frank’s bill might need “some tweaking” before it comes out of committee he’s confident that they have a piece of legislation that will eventually end up on the President’s desk for signature. And while it may seem odd that poker players need to pull the levers of government in order to get the government to treat us fairly, that’s politics for you. “Big Brother government should not tell you what you can do online,” D’Amato said emphatically. “We should be allowed to do what we want online without the arm of the government intervening.”
D’Amato’s words were echoed by U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley, who serves Las Vegas in the House. “That legislation (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was an affront to every freedom-loving American,” she said. She also said that it’ll take more than a handful of politicians to wipe the UIGEA off the books. “The only way (Rep. Frank’s) legislation will pass is if we stand up and get involved. Politics is not a spectator sport”.
And there are ways for you to get involved in the process. Sign the petition (I just did, it takes ten seconds). Upload a video, if you have mad camcorder skillz. Rep. Berkley recommended sending your Congresspeople emails in lieu of a written letter (will arrive instantly and is far more likely to be read). And ask your poker-playing friends (or friends who think that adults should be free to live without onerous goverment interference) to do the same. The UIGEA passed in large part because a small group of very vocal people convinced a handful of politicians to subvert the legislative process. To defeat them we need an army of freedom-loving citizens to stand up and be counted. Do your part, and stand up.
It seems these days that I write more about legal and political issues than poker. Once upon a time I thought about going to law school but when I told my parents they were less than enthused:
Mom (sobbing): I can’t be hearing this…my baby wants to be a…a lawyer.
Dad (rending his garments): What did we do wrong? Why would God punish us so?
Mom: You teach your children right from wrong, and how do they show their appreciation? By studying law???
Dad: You’re…you’re not thinking of going into politics, are you?
Mom: Oh God…oh God…it’s the end…
Me: Alright, fine! I won’t go to law school! Mom, get up off the floor!
Mom (crawling to her feet): Then what are you plans?
Me: Jeez, I dunno. I think I’ll be…a blogger.
Dad (perking up): A blogger? What’s that?
Me: It’s a job that doesn’t exist yet but it’s gonna be the hot thing by 2007.
Mom: Not as good as a hedge-fund manager, but I think that’ll play.
Etc, etc, etc. That belabored joke aside, these days a humble poker writer has to keep one eye on the felt and one eye on the powers that be. This past week saw a South Carolina judge rule that poker is a game of skill (good) while still finding five defendents guilty because the applicable anti-gaming law doesn’t differentiate between games of skill and chance (bad). This follows favorable (or at least semi-favorable) rulings in cases from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Colorado that indicate poker is gettting a fairer shake in the courts than it has in recent years.
But the 800-pound gorilla, when it comes to poker legislation, remains the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). More than two years after it was passed no one seems to know what to do with the UIGEA–the government doesn’t know how to enforce it, the Justice Departement doesn’t know who it applies to, and the banks who are supposed to search for prohibited transactions want no part of it. On top of that the law attempts to restrict poker players from spending their money as they see fit. Millions of Americans play poker in casinos and cardrooms across the country and millions more play in their homes. Poker tournaments are regular programming on major networks. Yet online poker is such a plague upon the land that it should be illegal? This makes sense how, exactly?
The optimists among us hoped that once the Bush Administration was swept aside the UIGEA would be swept aside as well. That seemed a bit overly-optimistic to me, as President Obama had a lot on his plate as he took office. But with the economy tottering, the stimulus bill passed, and the President yesterday announcing that he wants to cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his first term, it’s possible that the time is ripe to once again introduce the idea of legalizing online poker.
And apparently that’s what Representative Barney Frank believes. Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, announced on Friday that he will introduce a bill to repeal the UIGEA “in the next month”. But even with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, this is far, far from a slam-dunk. Online poker has opponents on both sides of the aisle, and that’s why it’s extremely important that poker players make their voices heard. The Poker Players Alliance has letters you can send to your members of Congress and to President Obama, as well as a Congressional directory so you can send your own letter or even call them directly. Remember to always, ALWAYS, be polite. Friendly, even. Explain why you want online poker to be legalized. Be direct and to the point–these are busy people. But make sure they know you consider this an important issue that you’ll be following closely.
Americans won’t be the only folks watching this issue closely. Also on Thursday the European Union announced that it’s considering filing a World Trade Organization complaint over the UIGEA. The Obama Administration seems to have less of an extended-middle-finger attitude toward treaties and trade agreements and whatnot, and getting mixed-up in a WTO complaint over online gaming might be a headache the President isn’t interested in right now, especially as the U.S. will need to work closely with the EU (and other countries) to deal with the global financial situation.
So, big news this week, with the promise of bigger news in the near future. Of course you can keep up with what’s going on right here at the UB Blog, and you can also check for updates at our Twitter feed. The PPA is also on Twitter, they even have a Facebook group for goodness sake. So there’s no excuse for not being informed on the issues, and no excuse for not making your voice heard. Everyone who loves poker kinda dropped the ball back in 2006 and they snuck the UIGEA past us. It’s time to pick that ball up and make those in office aware of our political weight.
As expected there was a lot of reaction after the verdict was read yesterday in the South Carolina poker case. While the five defendants were found guilty of violating the state’s anti-gaming laws, the fact that the judge decided that poker is a game of skill seemed to be what most folks were focusing on. Including the defendents themselves, who were “ecstatic” that the judge said poker is a game of skill. Judge J. Lawrence Duffy said in his ruling that the existing law (written in 1802, for heaven’s sake) did not give him the latitude to find the defendents not guilty, despite his concession that poker is a game of skill and not chance. The verdict will be appealed and, perhaps, overturned. Or maybe the South Carolina legislature will look at this case and decide it needs to update the law so that the provisions are less vague. Or maybe both.
If you’d like to see what Poker Player Alliance executive director John Pappas had to say about yesterday’s ruling, make yourself some popcorn and watch it right now:
Every week seems to bring fresh news about a potential change in the government’s stance toward poker, and the past seven days was no exception. Earlier this week the Financial Timespublishedthreearticles about online gaming and how governments (both in the United States and abroad) are changing their attitude toward the industry.
The biggest news from the three pieces is that Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, plans to introduce a bill “in the next few weeks” to regulate online gaming. Frank tried to get a bill passed last year but it never got to a vote. But this is 2009, President Obama is far less likely to veto a bill should it pass, and there is growing sentiment within Congress (and the public at large) that regulation, not prohibition, is how online gaming should be approached.
Two other statements from Frank should be of interest to poker players. One, the Congressman said that he “expected anti-gambling regulations, rushed through in the dying weeks of the Bush administration, to be included among the measures Congress will look to rescind.” That’s something I wrote about a few weeks ago, that the Congressional Review Act could be used to reverse the anti-gaming rules enacted by the Bush Administration shortly before they left office. It’s perhaps a bit overly optimistic to expect that to happen, but how long has it been since the words “optimism” and “online gaming regulations” were used in such close proximity?
Frank also said that he “expects the Obama (Department of Justice) to be less zealous about locking people up. These outrageous arrests in transit – they should be stopping that stuff.” It’s not just the DOJ who’s less-than-enthusiastic about going after online gaming operators. The financial services industry, who have had, um, a bad time of late, are among those clamoring the loudest for a change in the regs. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) put much of the onus for identifying and reporting online gaming transactions on banks and other financial institutions, and these days they have enough on their plate without burrowing into their customers’ records and trying to deduce what they should and shouldn’t allow.
There are other political and cultural forces that seem to be tilting the field in online gaming’s favor. On a purely practical level, governments around the world need to find ways of generating revenue. Right now the Senate is putting the finishing touches on a $780 billion stimulus bill–no matter how you slice it, that’s a lot of bread. And at the same time the Obama Administration wants to cut taxes on 95% of Americans. Government at every level will be grabbing up every nickel they can scrounge–it does not take a cynic to see that regulating online gaming might be a very attractive option to tax-starved legislators.
I personally take a civil liberties stance on why online gaming should be legal. People should be free to do what they want with their own time and money. Playing poker is legal in Vegas, in cardrooms around the country, you can play at home with your buddies…why should online play be forbidden? OK, if the government regulates the industry they’re gonna take their rake in some kind of tax, that’s just the price of doing business. But I don’t think revenue-generation should be the primary goal of regulation–as I said, people should be free to do what they want with their time and money. And, perhaps, the end of the Bush Administration’s policy of “surrender your rights and we’ll keep you safe, promise” will bring a new spirit of personal freedom (and personal responsibility) that’s been lacking the last eight years. And Barney Frank seems to agree with that. From the FT analysis piece:
Online gambling is a fundamental freedom, Mr Frank maintains, and attempts to make it illegal smack of a rightwing puritanical zeal that led to Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s.
“It is often the case in politics that the people who want change get energised,” says Mr Frank, adding that the political momentum in the US is coming from poker players. “This is impinging on their freedom and they are fighting back.”
Once upon a time (say, 2006) it was the religious right who were energized, who saw an opportunity to remake the world as they saw fit. That time, thankfully, has passed. But there are still harmful artifacts of those dark ages, one of them being the UIGEA. It’s not enough to sit back and wait for Barney Frank to weave his legislative magic and repeal the UIGEA. People who believe they should decide how best to live their lives (instead of Bill Frist and James Dobson) need to step up and make their voices heard. Write to your Congressperson, your Senator. The Poker Players Alliance provides pre-written letters you can send to your representatives, or you can take pen in hand (or keyboard in lap) and write your own.
When the UIGEA passed in 2006 a lot of people asked why no one spoke out against it beforehand. Well, it’s never too late to make your voice heard. The Financial Times analysis piece (written by the awesomely-named Roger Blitz) says the following about the online gaming regulation:
But the tide has shifted: this year is set to mark the moment when gambling online reaches a measure of acceptance and respectability its detractors on both sides of the Atlantic have long fought to prevent.
Online gaming’s detractors fought in the past and they’ll fight in the future. Maybe the tide has shifted, but that’s the funny thing about tides–they shift back. To keep that from happening will require poker players to fight just as hard, for just as long. It’s taken two-and-a-half years just to get to this spot, and there’s a long way to go before we enjoy anything like a true victory. If you love poker, if you value your personal freedom, keep yourself informed on this issue, and make sure your voice is heard. That’s some change we can believe in.
