PPA PRESSURE ON CONGRESS THIS WEEK

26 October 2007

100 members to lobby the lawmakers in Washington


The 800 000 member Poker Players' Alliance is gearing up to energetically lobby Washington lawmakers this week by flying in 100 members, including several poker champions such as Chris Moneymaker, to get poker exempted from anti-online gambling laws which already feature unfair exemptions for online horse races, state lotteries and fantasy sports.

Raising the stakes in Washington, the two-year-old lobbying group plans on pressing Congress to consider several new bills that would exempt poker from the law or regulate the gaming industry.

It's legal to play poker online, but the UIGEA made it illegal for U.S. banks and credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling businesses outside the United States.

John Pappas, the executive director of the PPA, claims the law only forced several reputable public British companies — such as PartyGaming PLC and 888 Holdings PLC — that had financial and age safeguards in place out of the U.S. online poker market.

"The idea that we can stop people from doing this [playing poker online] seems a bit irrational," said Pappas, who estimates there are between 15 million to 23 million U.S. Internet poker players.

The group backs the Frank bill to license and regulate Internet gaming, in general. A small tax on online poker operators could net the government at least a couple of billion dollars in revenue, Pappas said.

Chaired by former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and now lobbyist, the group has also upped its lobbying ante, spending $640 000 in the first six months this year, compared with $540 000 in all of 2006.

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