STRAIGHT TALKING FROM PPA

12 December 2008

Pressure group about to launch an advertising campaign in Washington DC

 

The ever-energetic Poker Players Alliance has announced that it plans to launch advertisements in three Washington DC publications directed at politicians and staffers on Capitol Hill to encourage federal online poker regulation.

With the headline "It's Time for Some Straight Talk", the ads will appear in the three major publications: Roll Call, The Politico, and The Hill, urging readers reconsider online poker regulation as a solution to the player protection problems aired in the recent Washington Post and 60 Minutes publicity.

The copy in the advertisement reads:

"In a story last week about online poker, The Washington Post debated the merits of Prohibition vs. Regulation. That’s an easy one. Sensible federal regulation is the only way to protect the millions of Americans who play Internet poker every day.

"We can’t guarantee every online company will play by the rules. But we’re certain good laws will deter and punish those that don’t. For too long, the federal government has abdicated this responsibility. It wrongly believes censoring the Internet and prohibition will work. This does nothing to protect consumers. What it does is limit our personal freedoms and drives players underground or overseas. Worse, billions of dollars that could be raised from regulation are lost. And in this economy, every nickel counts.

"Fortunately, Congress is working to pass legislation that will punish bad actors, guard against player fraud, protect children, and help problem gamblers.

"On behalf of our million members, the Poker Players Alliance calls on our Congressional leaders to support these efforts and preserve a national pastime.

"No matter how you cut the deck, regulation is the answer."

The announcement follows an earlier public statement on the Washington Post and 60 Minutes stories in which PPA chairman Alphonse D'Amato (see previous InfoPowa report) again urged the legalisation and regulation of online poker.

In the earlier statement, D'Amato said: "The federal government cannot continue to abdicate this basic responsibility to the millions of its citizens who choose to play poker on the Internet. The attempt to enforce an outright prohibition of online poker is deeply flawed and unworkable, and it invades upon the personal freedoms of law-abiding adults who wish to engage in a game of skill. And as 60 Minutes and the Washington Post stories reported it also exposes American consumers to the rare, unscrupulous bad apple operator who will take advantage of the lack of a U.S. regulated marketplace.

"Now more than ever the U.S. Congress needs to step up and enact real public policy as it relates to Internet gaming. We look forward to working with the new Administration and the new Congress to advance sensible regulatory solutions such as those introduced in the 110th Congress by Representatives Barney Frank (H.R. 2046) and Robert Wexler (H.R. 2610) and Senator Robert Menendez (S.3616)."