As I am on the board of the Poker Players Alliance, I have a fiduciary responsibility to keep what I learn confidential. That means that although I would have loved to tell you that we are excited to be in negotiations with former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, it was a matter of confidentiality and I was not permitted to disclose such information. The fact of the matter is that PPA president Michael Bolceric has now publicly stated that we
are in such negotiations. Just as in every other walk of life, some people needed to violate confidentiality and "leak" our negotiations, which hopefully does not hurt the cause of the PPA or make our negotiations more difficult.
The PPA has over 140,000 members in the USA, but we need a million. The PPA's primary goal for 2007 is to get online poker exempted from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that was signed into law in October 2006. Many, many organizations and sites in the poker community agree that it is necessary to have a cohesive group with one lone strong and powerful voice. The PPA is that group.
If and when former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato does, in fact, sign a contract with the PPA, Card Player has been granted an exclusive interview!
On another front, it appears that Doyle's room has temporarily left the US market, allowing its players to have their funds transferred to Full Tilt.
Full Tilt Poker is among the leaders trying to save online poker. To that extent, they offer their members deposit bonuses if they sign up for the Poker Player's Alliance. They say: "Although many legal scholars would argue that online poker should not be affected by the UIGEA, we believe the law's lack of clarity can only harm the game unless an express exemption is granted under the UIGEA. You should be outraged that, in a rush to passage, poker did not receive the objective review it deserves, and did not already get this express exemption while lotteries, horse racing, and fantasy sports were all given free passes. We demand that Congress address this grievous oversight now."
Please
click here to learn about and take advantage of offers by the PPA and Full Tilt.
Click here to take advantage of a deposit bonus at Full Tilt offered through CardPlayer.com.
Hopefully, by next week we will have more compelling intormation to disclose about the PPA's negotiations with New York's former senator.
