The Poker Players Alliance continued its assault on Capitol Hill today with a forum featuring six men who talked to a room full of media, poker advocates, and congressional aides about the state of online poker in America and the current political atmosphere surrounding the game.
The hour-long forum, which was titled "Poker: Public Policy, Politics, Skill and the Future of an American Tradition," lived up to its billing. The speakers touched on each of the subjects in the title, while news cameras rolled and Congressional aides furiously scribbled notes on large yellow legal pads.
The forum was the main event of the two-day "fly-in" sponsored by the PPA. About 95 PPA members from states across the country showed up in Washington on their own dollars to learn how they could be active for the game of poker on a local level. Those members also attended the forum and met face to face with their regional members of Congress.
The PPA organized all of the meetings between PPA members and members of Congress, and John Pappas, the PPA's executive director, was confident that the meetings did what he hoped they would do: give poker a face to the lawmakers and encourage them to support bills that would pave the way for regulation and taxation of online poker in America.
"It's been tremendous. We've had nearly 50 meetings with key lawmakers," Pappas said. "The pros have been a fantastic resource for us, but beyond that, just the 'Average Joe' poker players who have come out here and are participating in these meetings have made an impression on me that we have a real organization that is very interesting and can be politically motivated."
Pappas and PPA lobbyists have been talking to members of Congress to try to convince them to support both Barney Frank's bill, which would basically wipe the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) off the books, and Robert Wexler's bill that would install a carve-out in the UIGEA that would provide protection for games of skill (poker included), but Pappas said it was imperative to match the PPA members with their representatives.
Simply put, when constituents talk with their specific members of Congress, the members of Congress listen more closely.
"Now that we brought in their constituents, it really elevated the discussion to more of not just educating them, but getting commitments from them to support the legislation," Pappas said. "We left several meetings with people committing to support the bills we want. We can't hold anybody to (the commitments made in an office), but we're going to try."
Steven Miller, a PPA member from Los Angeles, was one of the local members to fly to Washington, D.C., for the effort. He believes that he made a difference and appreciates what the PPA did in organizing the fly-in.
"I think it's a tremendous gathering of passionate people," Miller said. "These are people who aren't necessarily skilled in the political process but are bringing a message they're passionate about to legislators who can make a difference."
But are the legislators listening?
"I'm sure they're listening. One of the things I was most impressed about was the knowledge that the legislative staff has about the issues," Miller said. "They're familiar with the legislation, and most of them have an opinion, but they're willing to hear what is being said."
The Forum
The forum's panel was made of Pappas, who acted as the moderator; poker pro Howard Lederer; Charles Nesson, Harvard law professor and founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society; Andrew Wood, Harvard law student and executive director of the first Global Poker Thinking Society, which was recently formed at Harvard; Radley Balko, a widely published columnist who often speaks loudly about the importance of civil liberties in America (he also testified against the online gambling bans at Congressional hearings held earlier this year); and Kenneth Adams, a longtime attorney who is one of the top minds in complex antitrust cases both here and abroad.
With a PPA banner behind them and an American flag to their right, Pappas directed questions to the assembled team who all answered candidly and carefully. Sometimes they agreed to disagree, but the forum shed some light on the UIGEA, the lawsuits that are challenging the constitutional legality of the UIGEA, the role of banks as "deputies" who will be required, by law, to enforce it, the chances that Frank's bill will be made into law, and other things.
Right from the top, Lederer defended poker after Balko referred to poker as a "vice." Lederer said he considers vices things that are unable to do any good for people, and although he noted that a small amount of people become problem gamblers, poker can do good things.
"Poker is something that is good for you," Lederer said. "For a vast majority of us, it's a wonderful form of entertainment that actually massages the mind."
One of the first questions Pappas directed to the panel was whether legal efforts challenging the UIGEA are worth it. Adams, one of the two attorneys sitting on the panel, said he didn't have much hope they would work.
"It takes too long, it cost too much money, and the odds are worse than drawing to an inside straight," Adams said.
But all panel members agreed that poker needs to be fought for in a court of law, particularly to get more legal rulings that poker is a game of skill and shouldn't be lumped into the game of chance category that taints it in the eyes of so many lawmakers.
Lederer also said that although the UIGEA won't go into effect until the rules the banks have to follow have gone through a review period, which could take as long as nine months from December, the banks and financial institutions are already making it difficult for players to move money to and from certain sites, and he warned players to expect the number of sites to grow.
He noted Visa and MasterCard have stopped doing business with a site that provides bridge players a place to play. The reason is the rules of the UIGEA are so broad that they essentially force the banks to choose which sites they can do business with and those with which they cannot. The banks, Lederer said, will simply stop all transactions with which there's any question in order to protect themselves and their employees.
"If the banks are blocking bridge, we're all in trouble," Lederer said.
Balko said the UIGEA essentially "deputizes banks" and Harvard lawyer Nesson took that even further.
"This is an example of abusive law," he said.
As for the chances of Frank's bill making it through, Adams again wasn't very optimistic. The reason is that lawmakers rarely admit to their mistakes and would often rather let their past decisions stand than to change their minds and look as if they are wavering. Lawmakers probably feel that way about Frank's bill, he said. Adams said he could count on one hand the number of times politicians had changed their minds about a policy, and he's been involved with Washington politics since graduating from law school in 1973.
After the forum, PPA members fanned out to all corners of Capitol Hill, armed with the information shared by the panelists, to talk to the people who represent them, and who they hoped to convince to become allies of the fight for poker.
