Support for Online Poker

[TheEngineer]

Hi all. This is my first post here, but I have been a Ron Paul supporter since late last year. I've posted regularly about this at www.twoplustwo.com and at other sites. I started supporting him when he was one of the few politicians to support my right to play poker and other games on the Internet. Is this the most important issue confronting us today? Perhaps not, but it is important to many poker players and freedom lovers, and it’s important to Dr. Paul too. He has often spoken out in our favor. And, he found time last week to meet with me and with some fellow poker players (which was awesome):


Victor Ramdin, Andy Bloch, Rep. Ron Paul, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and me

Federal restrictions on Internet poker is the ultimate expression of the nanny-state attitudes so prevalent in Washington D.C. Perhaps that’s why we should all fight hard for this, as Rep. Paul has. I’ve been fighting, and I hope you’ll all join the fight.

[M.Bellmore]

All we are doing is sending $$ overseas. Seems stupid.

[TheEngineer]

Do you want to stand up for your rights and support this important Ron Paul cosponsored legislation, but have only 60 seconds? Click this link, either type your info or click your AutoFill button, then click "submit". You'll send a letter to both of your Senators and to your Congressman. It takes literally one minute!

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Fight for Online Poker!! Weeks of 11/5 & 11/12

A few of us fighting back on other thread are doing the following actions. If you'd like, please join us by doing the following this week and next:

1. We have one more month to get our UIGEA comments submitted. We have until Dec. 12th, so let's make a lot of comments between now and then. This hasn't shown up on the Focus on the Family action plan (released a couple of days ago), so we may have a head-start here. Please go to https://pokerplayersalliance.org/new...le.php?DID=293 for instructions on submitting your comments.

2. As a result of the Fly-In and our hard work this year, we have good mommentum now. If you haven't written to Congress in the past 30 days, please do so. The Poker Players Alliance letter is at http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersallian...418046&type=co; sending that takes less than one minute. Regardless of when you last called, let's call this week and next. Phone numbers are at http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/dbq/officials.

3. If you have ANY connection to MA, please contact Gov. Patrick and tell him you won't tolerate a ban on Internet poker. Also, contact Barney Frank for help. He is powerful in the Mass. Democratic party.

4. If you have ANY connection to KY, please contact soon-to-be governor-elect Steve Beshear and ask him to ensure that Internet poker is not excluded in his proposal to legalize casino gaming in the state.

5. Regularly write to newspapers and post to blogs. A few posts here and there can start to put us in the national zeitgeist.


Thanks everyone!

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Contact Info:

Your senators: www.senate.gov
Your representative: www.house.gov

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3542
http://reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
United States Senate
361-A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2541
http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

Michael Duncan (from Kentucky)
Chairman, Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
email: Chairman@gop.com

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100
http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
email: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

Rep. Steny Hoyer
House Majority Leader
H-107 Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3130

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)
Office of the Republican Leader
H-204 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4000
Fax: (202) 225-5117

Pres. Bush: comments@whitehouse.gov

Horse tracks: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=0#Post12335695

Democratic National Committee: http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

Letters to the editor, Washington Post: letters@washpost.com
Letters to the editor, New York Times: letters@nytimes.com

[TheEngineer]

Originally Posted by M.Bellmore

All we are doing is sending $$ overseas. Seems stupid.

You're right about that. If we change the law, we'll have U.S. based sites, and overseas money will be coming in instead of our money going out.

[DeadheadForPaul]

yay poker players! I got friends who play online. Protect it!

[TheEngineer]

I met with my Congressman's aide while in D.C. Here's my letter to her:

November 3, 2007

***** ********
Legislative Assistant
Office of the Honorable Geoff Davis
United States House of Representatives
1108 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1704

Dear *******:

Thank you for taking the time to meet with my fellow poker players and me on October 24 during the Poker Players Alliance Fly-In. I was impressed with your knowledge of this issue. It was certainly a pleasure meeting with you.

I do have a couple of observations for your consideration. Rep. Davis and you sent me a letter a few months ago in response to my concerns regarding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). In it, you stated that Internet gaming is not legal. However, federal case law has consistently held that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting (1). As for state law, Kentucky, like the majority of states, has no law prohibiting Internet poker. As a result, many offshore sites continue to legally offer Internet poker within the U.S. In fact, sites that left the U.S. market with the passage of UIGEA, most notably Doyle Brunson’s site, Doyle’s Room, are returning to the American market (2). Unfortunately, U.S.-based sites have been prohibited from opening under pressure from the Justice Department. This has resulted in the exact opposite of the ideal situation, from a U.S. perspective. Rather than U.S.-based sites, subject to U.S. laws and regulations, serving the world, offshore sites serve us.

My next observation concerns the recent Annenberg Internet gaming study. You commented that this study showed a decline in Internet poker play by those deemed by the study authors to be “college-age youths” (defined in the study as 18-22; please note that 100% of these “youths” are adults and 40% of them are 21 years of age or older). The study is actually quite fascinating. First of all, the pre-UIGEA percentage of college-age “youths” playing cards for money on the Internet at least weekly was only 5.8%. This is hardly an epidemic. More interesting was the pre-UIGEA rate of Internet gaming by minors – 0.0%! Seems the industry’s age controls are working. If Rep. Davis' concern is poker playing by young adults, this could clearly be remedied at the state level with appropriate legislation. Sites honor these limits already, as evidenced by the very study touted by Focus on the Family!

The Annenberg study also discusses problem gaming. Unfortunately, the study tended to bias the extent of the problem, in my opinion, by asking questions any winning poker player would answer affirmatively. For example, the question “(have you) often found yourself thinking about gambling” would get many affirmative responses from poker players with no compulsive behaviors. After all, poker is a game of skill. We do think about strategy and how to improve. People engaged in other hobbies and professions think about their activities as well. As an engineer, I often think of better ways to improve the ***** design (the **** for the **** program, which I thank Rep. Davis for supporting). Am I a “problem engineer”? If the issue at hand is problem gambling, let’s address this with industry funded treatment for compulsive behaviors and with self-exclusion lists. The industry has consistently offered this. This would be far more effective than federal prohibition, in my humble opinion.

You also mentioned terrorist financing. I do wonder how many liberties we’re expected to surrender in the name of fighting terrorism. It is especially troubling in this instance, as there has never been a documented case of terrorist financing via online poker. Sites already have controls in place to prevent use of sites for illegally moving money from one party to another, and these were proven to be effective at the June 8 House Financial Services Committee hearing on Internet gambling. The irony here is that explicit legalization would clearly improve the situation here…U.S.-based sites would follow U.S. law by definition, and offshore sites could be compelled to report transactions exceeding specific thresholds as a condition of licensing requirements. Again, we are clearly looking at the law of unintended consequences at work.

Finally, I wish to remind you that Gov. Fletcher will lose in a landslide on Tuesday. His demonization of gambling did absolutely nothing to improve his weak poll numbers. If Kentuckians are not opposed to physical casinos offering games of chance in the commonwealth, or to a gubernatorial candidate who supports them, do they care about adults playing poker on their own computers in their own homes? It does not appear that they do.

I do feel Focus on the Family is overplaying their hand on this issue. The people of Kentucky’s Fourth District are not anti-poker, nor do they want big government nanny-statish censorship of the Internet. I personally do not see anything conservative about big government prohibitions on Internet poker, nor do most of Rep. Davis’ fellow Republicans. I urge you to recommend that Rep. Davis support either HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 or HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,


TheEngineer


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1. In re MasterCard Int’l, et al., 132 F. Supp. 2d 468, (E.D. La. 2001), upheld on appeal by the Fifth Circuit – 2002 C05 518 (USCA5, 2002)
2. www.doylesroom.com, statement on main page, effective October 19th, 2007
3. http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycent...t18version.pdf, October 18, 2007

[TheEngineer]

Originally Posted by DeadheadForPaul

yay poker players! I got friends who play online. Protect it!

Thanks! Even nonplayers should wish to protect every freedom we can.

[ItsTime]

I work closely with Rafe Furst and Phil Gordon Ron Paul is the buzz... I dont know if they support him but they know about his work to help online poker stay legal

[Ron Paul Fan]

Awesome. Lederer, Fergueson, Andy Bloch. All of those guys are rich and can max donate! They can also tell their rich poker friends! If Ron Paul picks up enough steam I bet they'll come on board. What do those guys probably care the most about? Their online poker businesses staying legal and low taxes! So who's their man? Ron Paul!

[STA654]

Ferguson looks like Guy Fawkes.