Poker and politics have been strange bedfellows during the middle of 2010. Earlier this week, Annie Duke stepped in front of a Congressional committee to testify about the benefits of regulation and licensing of the online gaming industry. Now, Full Tilt Poker’s Andy Bloch has joined forces with the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) at an important conference regarding internet freedom.
Late last week, Bloch was a featured panelist during the Netroots Nation 2010 Conference, which is currently being held in Las Vegas. The conference is a chance for people to gather and discuss current internet freedom issues that face the country. Bloch said in his opening statement, “Basically, if it is illegal to do in the real world, it should be illegal to do online. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case when it comes to gambling.” He then went on to point out the problems with the current state of the online gaming and the approach by the Federal Government.
“Gambling is legal, in some form or another, in 48 of the 50 states,” Bloch stated. “I’m a professional poker player and poker is legal in approximately 40 of the 50 states.” He then continued to point out how both the Federal and state governments – and their approach to the online gaming conundrum – are incorrect, saying, “Unfortunately, the Federal Government and some state governments have singled out gambling, and online gambling, for attack.”
Because the conference is focused on individual liberties, Bloch asked the question, “If you’re not a poker player, or an online poker player, why should you care about the issue?” His presentation was based on three basic issues: “First, it is an issue of basic freedom. If online poker is illegal while other forms of gambling are legal, why can’t the government decide what else shouldn’t be made illegal online? Second, the attempts by the government to block online gambling have implications and side effects on the internet as a whole. Third, if you are interested in internet freedom, you can learn a lot from poker’s abilities to organize and defend their basic rights.”
Bloch’s testimony on the panel included a story regarding playing an inexpensive online sit and go with a player who told him about how he could not travel because of a sight disability, but still wanted to partake in poker. They discussed another player they both knew, who was deaf, and how good it was to have something like online gaming to bring them together. As he concluded the story, Bloch made his most poignant statement: “Interactions like these are why protecting internet freedom is important, even when it is a freedom you might not take advantage of yourself or even understand.”
After the symposium concluded, Bloch issued a press release through the PPA where he reiterated many of the thoughts he spoke about during the seminar. “Americans enjoy the game of poker no matter their political stripes and can watch games on countless television channels,” Bloch said. “We need to make sure that both politicians and activists are aware of the ridiculous attempts to prohibit online poker. They are forgoing billions in tax revenue when our budgets are most in need, rejecting the opportunity to properly regulate online poker and ignoring their responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable members of our society.”
The PPA is a premier sponsor of Netroots Nation 2010 and has been advocating for the rights of poker players since prior to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. Numbering over one million members, the PPA and its leadership – Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, Executive Director John Pappas, and its State Directors – have been influential in lobbying Congress and stepping in to protect the rights of individual players who play poker.