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March 2008 PPA Newsletter
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act(UIGEA)
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Message from the Chairman: Jan 2008
Happy New Year! Please read this important announcement. Poker needs you! 2008 will be a critical year for poker. The success and momentum we built together in 2007 must continue into a more vocal and mobilized grassroots efforts this year. We cannot move forward without broad support and active involvement from our members. With that in mind, I am pleased to extend to you an invitation to become a State Director for the Poker Players Alliance. I can tell you from my own political experience that there is no more important mission for the PPA than to have a strong, vocal and coordinated grassroots effort. With 2008 being a major election year, it is even more pressing that the PPA become a player in the key battleground states and districts. We are taking steps to empower our State Directors. Currently we have state directors in 30 states, but this important component of our organization will not be complete until every state in the Union is fully represented. State Directors are volunteer positions. You will not be compensated monetarily for your work; however, neither will you be expected to incur any expenses of your own. We are expanding the program so that there are multiple representatives from each state. And then, with guidance and support from the PPA, State Directors will engage in activities at the local and national level that are aimed at building the organization while promoting and defending the great game of poker. These activities will include:
If you are interested in becoming more actively involved in the PPA, please apply today to be a State Director by filling out this simple online application (click here). Current PPA State Directors needn’t apply again. The submission period ends on Monday, January 28th. The PPA will review all applications and selections will be made in early February. Again, a strong a viable State Directors program will be a major thrust of the PPA’s efforts in 2008. I hope you will consider applying for these important positions. Proud to Play Poker, Author Contact Info: Alfonse D'Amato, Poker Players Alliance |
Poker Players Alliance: News and Articles
| [PPA] Report from Executive Director John Pappas |
First, I am pleased to announce that Rep. John Conyers (MI) Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has agreed to co-sponsor H.R. 2046, the Skill Game Protection Act. Further, his Committee officially announced today that they are holding a hearing next week (Nov. 14th) to discuss Internet gaming issues. Both of these considerable achievements can be in a large part credited to our grassroots fly-in from just two weeks ago. During the fly-in we had more than one occasion to meet with the Chairman and explain our issues. He was so impressed with our arguments that he asked Annie Duke to testify at the Committee hearing. While the other witnesses have not been made public at this time, I can tell you that there will be experts to discuss the WTO, age-verification, the proposed regulations and problem gambling. Click here for more info on the hearing, we encourage our members who live in the Washington, D.C. area to attend.
Next, I would like to discuss some of our grassroots success. Last Friday the PPA sent a note to our members in the state encouraging them to write the Governor to oppose the state gambling bill language which would criminalize residents for playing Internet poker. With the hard work and leadership of Randy C (our PPA MA state rep) more than 1700 letters have been sent to State Reps, State Senators and the Governor in less than a week. This voice has been heard and recognized by these legislators, and they understand that this voice will not go away until the onerous provision is removed. Randy C will continue to update you on the progress of this campaign.
The PPA can also claim success in the defeat of Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, whose staunch anti-gambling position, as well as a host of other issues lead to his crushing double-digit defeat. The PPA’s efforts were highlighted in a Louisville Courier Journal column on the day before the election (click here) and the Governors staff acknowledged that they has received several calls, letters and emails from PPA members expressing their displeasure. Special thanks to TheEngineer for being instrumental in the organization of our effort.
On the regulation front, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), an independent organization that regularly offers Congress objective analysis of proposed governmental agency regulations, released a report this week that noted significant problems with the UIGEA regulations recently submitted by the Treasury Department. They are extremely influential in Washington regulatory circles and the PPA is pleased with their enlightened view of the onerous regulation. Click here to go to their filing.
On the media front, the WTO issue is beginning to crystallize on Capitol Hill. This week two articles of note appeared, one in The Bureau of National Affairs and the other in Roll Call. Both articles specifically call for the Barney Frank Bill as a fix to one of the most daunting cases the WTO has ever faced … a case which could have far reaching and unintended consequences for the U.S. These articles were especially important as lead EU trade officials were here in DC this week to discuss this very issue! We are doing our very best to make sure members of Congress are aware of what is going on, and just how important this case could become.
On Tuesday night this week, Horton's Kid's a local DC charity that helps inner city kids, threw a Charity poker tournament at the National Building Museum, and it was a rousing success. With the PPA as its largest supporting donor for the event, Horton's Holiday Hold ‘Em event raised $300,000 all of which goes directly to the charity. More than 220 Congressional staff, members of Congress, lobbyists and poker enthusiasts had a great time playing poker with PPA Board Member Greg Raymer and Chairman Alfonse D’Amato. It was a great event which once again highlighted the unique power of poker. As an added bonus, a PPA member from DC won the event and received a $10,000 2008 WSOP Main Event seat for his efforts.
This has been another exciting week for poker, with many more to come.
Poker (a love~hate thing) part I
Ok, picture in your mind a typical 3 bdrm 2 ba single level house on a modest family street, nice visual going yet? Ok, good, now, you know the one housethat always seemed to have trouble brewing around there? The cops, the loud music , the dogs, the parties on a Wednesday night or every night, the revving of sandrail engines, Harley motors, the smell of spraypaint going on a bumper, we all have at least one in every suburban neighborhood across the US....well that's where I fell in love with the game of poker. Long nights for a 16 year old girl, who just loved hanging out with the guys... but that's where my now husband of 20 years lived. I was in LUV (thats how 16 year old girls spelled it back then)... nothing could have or did stop me from hanging with him in those days, my Mom wasn't around much, my Dad left 15 years earlier, I never knew him, so I got myself a boyfriend... 10 years older and oh so much wiser (budweiser that is).. he knew it all... him and his buddies were so much weiser they built an entire walk-in castle thing-a-ma-bobber out of beer cans. "But honey if we ever have kids, they already got something to play in... ahahaha" Well back to the poker part of this story.... every Friday & Saturday night we would all sit down and pretend how to play poker, we always had arguments over hand - ranks, for the love of me I don't remember why, but it probably had something to do with every other card being 'wild', now that was fun... lol .... 7 card baseball with 2's, 6's and one-eyed jacks wild was one of the favorites of the nights..."no Copper on the Table" was our motto, and if one person ran out of money we all threw him some change, just to keep him around longer... and this party lasted for almost 4 years every weekend, until the 'man' took 2 bros away for awhile so they could lift some weights, and make 12 cents an hour. All of us that played poker together just kind of scattered after that, some went east some went west, but all our lives changed after that night. But it sure was fun while it lasted ;) I then went about 3 years without playing a single hand... I just couldn't find anywhere or anyone that really was interested, the good old days were over, reality sunk in, or reality was 'smoked' out on purpose, kids were conceived, a couple even ended up with a mortgage payment, and the white picket fence- aww Isn't that sweet? "GAG!" These people swore to Live free and ride hard for the rest of their lives, whatever, they turned into yuppie scum. Not that there is anything wrong with living the good life, but to just abandon your friends/family that were there for you in good and bad times, for money and "things" just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But life moves on.... and then along came this thing they call a computer... ohhhhhhhhh ahhhhhh , You mean I can play games online? against real people? Right On! I found a new friend in the internet... I started with blackjack, then blackjack tourneys, then found a game they called Texas Holdem, took about 3 hours to download on my slow very slow dial up connection, and of course there was no $$ involved, but I didn't care, I was playing poker again. Limit poker was all they offered back then from the Hoyle Co., I then started playing the poker tourneys they offered thru the same software. They were fun, usually around 85-100 players. Then the admin who sponsored the tourneys aked me if I would like to become a tourney director for the BJ and poker tourneys. I did that for about a year and just got burnt out on the results lists that I had to handwrite and then post to a website. It was tedious and most times I was the only one to show up. Our 'leader' didn't lead by example thats for sure. So after that site disolved into a pay to play for fun site, I just lost hope for poker in my future. Until one day a kid named Mike said , psssst, hey Gin, they got this real poker site going on at pokerpages... well heck, I never thought about going and searching for poker anywhere else, I didn't know hardly anything about a computer at all, I read all kinds of things to teach me how to use and not kill a computer. None of it made any sense to me until I sat with the mouse, and now I can't put it down, I don't know how I ever functioned without it. That might be an experiment to try... "Lady, put down the mouse"....lol
............................ cont. in Part II................ sometime soon....
Congressman Ron Paul Against UIGEA
Congressman Ron Paul Against UIGEA
Congressman Ron Paul
By Arthur Crowson
There is one more opponent of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). According to www.house.gov, Presidential hopeful Ron Paul will be offering his support to Congressman Barney Frank's revised gambling bill, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act or IGREA.
The act would create an exemption to the ban on online gambling for licensed operators, allowing Americans to lawfully bet online.
Paul called UIGEA an, "Outrageous affront" to individual freedom. He went on to state the importance of respecting the American people's right to decide for themselves whether or not they gamble online.
Paul is a prominent Republican Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, who is now serving his 10th term. He is a long-time libertarian and has voiced a strong opposition to the Iraq war. Following a recent debate in Iowa and more mainstream coverage Paul's popularity seems to be rising. Gambling911.com recently slashed his odds of becoming president from 15 to 1 to 8 to 1. Many pundits have him pegged as the Internet's favorite candidate.
IGREA, also known as HR 2046, was introduced on April 26, 2007, by Frank, who is a member of the Democrat Party. Frank has since continued his battle against the Internet Gambling Ban while bolstering support for his revised bill.
"The existing legislation is an inappropriate interference on the personal freedom of Americans and should be undone," said Frank when he introduced the bill.
IGREA would establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework to license companies to accept bets and wagers online from individuals in the U.S. To the extent permitted by individual states, Indian tribes and sports leagues.
Poker Players Alliance Chairman and former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato has also put himself firmly behind the bill.
"Congressman Frank's bill is a common sense approach to Internet gambling," he said when it was announced.
Support of IGREA seems to be growing. There are currently 34 co-sponsors with Neil Abercrombie (D-Hi.), Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) the most recent to sign onboard.
Aides to Frank's office have said they are receiving a massive amount of phone calls and e-mails from individuals voicing their support for the bill as well.
Frank and Co. have their work cut out for them, however, as it currently takes 218 votes to ratify a bill.
