ACADEMICS TAKE A STAND ON MASS. ONLINE GAMBLING PROPOSAL

21 March 2008

Harvard law professor plans a rally this week


The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS), the group formed at Harvard Law School to promote poker as an educational tool (see previous InfoPowa report), is co-sponsoring a rally Tuesday at the Statehouse in Boston with the Massachusetts chapter of the Poker Players Alliance to protest the proposed criminalisation of online poker in Governor Deval Patrick's gaming bill.

The group plans to demand that Governor Patrick explain who wrote the provision of the casino bill outlawing poker, which a Harvard Law Professor called "crazy and nonsensical."

"I don't think filling our expensive jail cells with poker players is what Massachusetts voters had in mind when they elected Deval Patrick," said Charles Nesson, the Harvard professor who founded the GPSTS.

Governor Patrick "owes the people of Massachusetts an explanation" as to how the anti-poker provision found its way into the bill, Nesson said. "We intend to keep pushing this until we get answers from the governor," Nesson added.

A public hearing on the highly controversial legislation, the Massachusetts Casino Expansion bill (H. 4307), which seeks to ban online gambling at the same time allowing the construction and operation of three massive land casinos, is scheduled for Tuesday after the 9:15 a.m. rally in front of the Statehouse.

Nesson plans to speak at the rally. If the bill passes, residents of Massachusetts who play online poker would face jail terms of up to two years and a maximum fine of $25 000.

Massachusetts would be the only state in the country to explicitly make the playing of online poker a crime, and the law would even apply to players in online poker games where no money was at stake.

"There is another downside to the anti-poker legislation. Outlawing online poker also advertises to the world that Massachusetts is a state that discriminates against the Internet and new technologies, which is exactly the opposite of what the state needs for its economic development," Nesson added.

John Pappas, the executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, said that Massachusetts had become a bellwether state in terms of its policy toward online gaming.

"People around the world are watching to see how the Massachusetts legislature deals with this issue because its significance goes far beyond gaming," said Pappas, whose organisation has over 900 000 members.

"We believe taking the extreme step of criminalizing online poker would be a strike against personal freedom, would tarnish the reputation of Massachusetts as a progressive state, and be opposed by millions of poker players around the country and world," he added.

Nesson has had a series of sharp written and verbal exchanges with casino owners and government officials trying to determine the author of the anti- poker provision. Nesson said a spokesman for Governor Patrick informed him that the governor was unaware of the provision, while inquiries to the Governor's press secretary have gone unanswered.

Said Nesson, "On top of the issue of creating bad law there is a good government question concerning how legislation actually gets written in this state. It should be a matter of concern to all Massachusetts citizens, regardless of their views about online games, how this narrow industry-backed provision found its way into the Governor's casino bill."

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa