This week, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the main lobbying group for the online poker industry, distributed an important e-mail to its membership, the first of the New Year. The message urged its 1.2 million members to tell incoming President-elect Barack Obama that legalization and regulation of online poker are of the utmost importance. At a time when the Federal Government has authorized hundreds of billions of dollars for industry bailouts, new sources of revenue are critical.
Members and other poker players who want to support the cause are encouraged to visit the Citizen’s Briefing Book found on Change.gov, the official website of the Obama Transition Team. The Book allows Americans to weigh in on what they believe are the most important issues facing the nation. The website states, “The best rated ideas will be gathered into a Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in.” Categories that concerned citizens have weighed in on include the economy, education, energy, foreign affairs, health care, homeland security, and technology.
Recent additions to the Citizen’s Briefing Book include calls for a declaration of war on global warming, a flat tax rate of 10% regardless of a person’s income, and national distribution of electric power. The issues that have been posted run the gamut of industries. In order to add or vote on a topic, users must first register an account, which can be done by clicking the “Sign In” link on the top of the left menu bar.
In order to find online poker, type “UIGEA” into the box located underneath “Find an Issue You Care About.” At the time of writing, there were five total search results returned. However, the PPA encourages concerned poker players to click on the one entitled “Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker.” There are currently nearly 1,400 comments on the topic, which has received 43,510 points. In order for that score to increase, users must “Vote Up” the issue. Comments are representative of both sides of the issue.
Aside from general “Repeal the UIGEA” statements, several voters have gone one step further and created economic and social arguments for the legalization of online poker. For example, “FreeMarket” commented, “Tax and regulate it, fund your new programs. It’s a basic economic theory of supply and demand, there is a big demand so there will be supply. Tax that supply.” Paul Herzog, known in the online poker world as “grapsfan,” posted, “The UIGEA was passed in the most shady means possible, at the 11th hour by an outgoing Senator with a chip on his shoulder and frustration that he couldn’t get it done fair and square. The UIGEA deserves the same amount of scrutiny as any other legislation. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Ideas identified by the Citizen’s Briefing Book as “popular” based on the total number of points include “Ending Marijuana Prohibition” with 68,840, “Commit to becoming the ‘greenest’ country in the world” with 58,070, and “The permanent closure of all torture facilities” with 52,550. Online poker ranks as the ninth rated issue, followed closely by one related to increasing the miles per gallon minimums on automobiles.
Barack Obama was elected by a decisive margin in November and will become the 44th President of the United States on January 20th. The regulations of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will be implemented the day before, part of outgoing President George W. Bush’s midnight rule-making. Recently, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced HR 34, the Midnight Rule Act, which would seek to review last-minute regulations made by any outgoing administration. The Act is retroactive to October 22, 2008, which would include the regulations of the UIGEA.
