CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN

27 July 2007

Politician reaffirms that voters' emails have impact

In the second part of his interview over the weekend with the online poker information portal Poker News, Florida Congressman Robert Wexler stressed the importance in the US political system of voters' views on issues that concerned them.

Commenting that there are thousands of poker players in every Congressional district in America, the Congressman said: "If people who are interested and enjoy playing poker, if one one-hundredth of those people take a small amount of time to contact in one way or another their member of Congress and say, "Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Member of Congress, why in God's name would you vote to prohibit me, a adult, to choose to play whatever game I want to play on the Internet?"

He said that the more people that engage in the political process in that fashion, the more compelling it will be, and Congress will react.

"What I think most Americans don't appreciate, letters DO matter to members of Congress," Wexler said. "Emails DO matter, form letters, personal letters DO matter, telephone calls DO matter. There has been an article or two about this issue. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal, there have been articles on others, and it is just anecdotal. But I got a bigger response from just being in one line in an article about a poker issue than I have in just about any other issue I've been involved in, in my twelve years in Congress."

Wexler re-emphasised the importance of contacting political representatives later in his interview, too, saying: ".....what [players] ought to do is let their opinions be known to their member of Congress. One - let them know that they're aware of the current law that was passed by the last Congress, which hopefully they think is ludicrous. They don't need to spell out in specifics everything that needs to be done. They just need to tell the member of Congress 'We think the law that was passed last Congress is awful!'"

Asked by Poker News whether he sensed that players wanted his proposal that online poker be granted the same carve-outs as existed for horse racing, state lotteries and fantasy sports, the Florida politician pointed out that people in the United States enjoy playing poker and other games they have become accustomed to playing. He added: "....when the Federal Government steps literally into your home and says 'Were telling you from Washington you can't play poker on the Internet!' People get offended, rightfully so."

Asked what the next step was, the Congressman pointed out that the issue of personal freedom and privacy is very important. He remarked that the idea that government would in effect create another category of prohibition in the United States should make people think and say, "That's insane!"

"When you boil it down to its very bottom line, which is 'I can't play poker on the Internet!' that will have a big impact," Wexler said. "There will be some people that say, "You know, the Internet is the venue of the 21st century for everything. So, the idea that we would prohibit poker and other games of skill, is not only just counterproductive, it's antiquated!"

In an apparent reference to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits US financial transactions with online gambling sites, Wexler said: "There will be a question of …most people say 'This isn't going to stop it anyway, it will just force people into a different venue that is less safe, less secure and will cause more problems than we were designing to cure in the first place.'"

Poker News asked Wexler the very pertinent question of his perception of 'big gaming' attitudes - where groups such as MGM Mirage and Harrah's stood, and whether online poker was a business on which they had ambitions, for example.

Stressing that he was not an expert on the gaming industry, Wexler said that he thought there was a wide belief that the current US law is hypocritical, because it exempts state lotteries which, if he understood the statistics correctly, the poorest people are more likely to engage in gambling on than is the case in poker or any other form of gambling.

"So the terrible irony is we permitted the one form of gambling that actually hurts the poorest people, that we made an exception for where the payout is the least and so forth," he said. "What the gaming industry also rightfully recognizes is the horses were given a special exemption. I think what the gaming industry, more than anything, wants there to be in Washington [is] an understanding that the gaming industry is an industry like all other industries, and it should be treated like part of our economy, an important part of our economy, and it shouldn't be treated in any specialised fashion, neither singled out for certain types of punitive regulations or otherwise.

"I think if that were to happen, the gaming industry in general would be satisfied. In the short term, I think what they would like to see is a very punitive, hypocritical counterproductive law overturned."

In response to another Poker News question regarding timelines for his proposal, Congressman Wexler said: "Right now we're in the hearing process. We're just energizing. It's going to take a significant amount of effort, public awareness, and energy on behalf of the poker playing public to move Congress. Congress hasn't set a date yet....to get our troops out of Iraq. I hope we're playing poker at the same time, before we're getting out of Iraq."

Asked to reiterate what players could do to help his proposal forward, Wexler concluded the interview by emphasising that players should let their opinions be known to their member of Congress.

"One - let them know that they're aware of the current law that was passed by the last Congress, which hopefully they think is ludicrous. They don't need to spell out in specifics on everything that needs to be done. They just need to tell the member of Congress "We think the law that was passed last Congress is awful! You should support Wexler's bill that creates the ability for people to play games of skill on the Internet. Support that bill, and support Barney Frank's bill, and support Shelley Berkley's bill. But most importantly, to give Americans their freedom back, their freedom of choice when it comes to playing games on the Internet."

The full interview can be read at: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/7/poker-game-skill-robert-wexler-two.htm

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