Members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) have often asked whether their Representative and Senators have supported the rights of poker players in the past. After all, looking through voting records can be quite a daunting task. On Wednesday, the PPA announced the development of the Congressional Ratings Guide, which has letter grades similar to those found in schools assigned to each Congressman and Senator. The guide is available at CongressionalPoker.org. The move comes as the final Presidential debate was held on Wednesday night. General elections will occur on Tuesday, November 4th, when the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be up for grabs.
PPA Chairman and former three-term Senator from New York Alfonse D’Amato revealed why developing the Guide was so important: “As PPA continues its efforts to educate members of Congress about poker as a game of skill, it is important that PPA members know how their member of Congress stands on the issue of protecting their rights to play poker online.”
The Guide assigns a rating of A, B, C, D, or F, to each lawmaker with A as the best possible letter grade and F as the worst. Plusses and minuses are also given to differentiate candidates of the same grade. The PPA revealed that 164 members of Congress received a score of B or better. However, there were also 258 lawmakers that scored a D or worse.
Using the Congressional guide is very straight-forward. All a person must do is click on the two letter postal abbreviation for their state, which will bring up a list of the state’s Representatives and Senators, or enter their zip code. Next to each name is the critical information that an informed poker player would need to know. For example, here is what’s given for Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States:
District: IL-Senator
Name: Barack Obama (D)
PPA Rating: ?
Office: 713 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone: 202-224-2854
Fax: 202-228-1372
As you can see, the stances of several Congressional leaders are currently up in the air. The Ratings Guide for House Congressional members is based on support for HR 4411 (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was passed back in 2006), HR 2046 (Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act), HR 2610 (Robert Wexler’s Skill Game Protection Act), HR 6870 (Barney Frank’s Payments System Protection Act), as well as bills designed to study the industry. A question mark, such as the one prescribed to Senator Obama, means that the individual has no voting record on the topic.
In the Senate, the Congressional Ratings Guide is based on support for anti-internet gambling legislation such as S 474 (John Kyl’s bill), S 692, S 627, S 3006, or S 972, which sought to eliminate federal tax deductions for losses incurred from gambling.
Several members of the House of Representatives and their PPA ratings include:
Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) – A+
Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) – A+
Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) – A
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – D
Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) – F-
Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) – F-
Several members of the United States Senate and their PPA ratings include:
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) – A+
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) – D
Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) – F
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – F
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) – F
Both Presidential candidates, Senator Obama (D-IL), and Senator John McCain (R-TX), have question marks as ratings in the guide due to a paucity of votes regarding internet gambling in the Senate. The UIGEA was attached to the SAFE Port Act in 2006 by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). It passed through the Senate by unanimous consent.
