Home / Poker News August 2009 / First ever National Poker Week lends hope, resolve
First ever National Poker Week lends hope, resolve
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-08-09 12:47
At the end of July, the Poker Players’ Alliance organized the first ever National Poker Week. The event marked a never before seen escalation of pro online poker activity. PPA members attended more than 100 Congressional meetings, over 375,000 signatures were collected to support a petition to the President regarding the legalization of online poker and U.S. representatives were bombarded with over 200,000 emails and letters regarding the matter. In a nutshell: the National Poker Week definitely deserved an ‘A’ for effort.
There were actual results too though.
Radio Host Howard Stern signed up as a PPA member and according to John Pappas, the PPA’s executive director, the National Poker Week drive helped raise awareness with lawmakers who had little or no understanding of the game and of its nature, and who may have been indifferent to the matter or may even have opposed it. We’re certainly glad to hear that, although one needs to admit it is at least a little awkward that politicians who have voted against legal online poker should change their minds after being properly filled in on the matter. Apparently however, that’s exactly what the PPA has achieved. Already a strong supporter of Barney Frank’s H.R. 2267 (the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act) which outlines ways to legalize and to tax online poker in the U.S., the PPA managed to bring seven more co-sponsors onboard, increasing the nominal support for the bill to 54 representatives.
Though the hearing for HR 2267 has been postponed to September, the bill has more support now than ever as the fight to legalize online poker slowly seems to have the tide turning in its favor.
According to Pappas, in the case of online poker, the lack of a clear understanding of the issue breeds fear and discomfort. After all, no one wants to see a casino offering ample gambling opportunities in every home. The skill based nature of poker makes it a world apart from online gambling though. Americans have played poker in their homes for generations and nobody had any kind of problems with it up until recently. There’s no reason whatsoever why Americans shouldn’t be able to exercise a constitutional right, especially if the government will be able to generate tax revenue off it.
At the end of the first ever National Poker Week, John Pappas drew the bottom line content that the effort was immensely successful. He said his organization only fell short in one matter, which was the actual presentation of the petition to President Barack Obama, but he added that they were hoping to achieve that too later this year.
The recent abundance of pro poker bills and an almost utter lack of anti-poker response have left John Pappas thinking that the effort to legalize the game has finally found the right track. As an immediate goal, Pappas pointed to the exclusion of online poker from the UIGEA (set to be enforced starting December 1st 2009) on the grounds of being a game of skill and as such unfit to be considered online gambling.
