Poker Players Alliance Spent $940,000 Lobbying in 2007

The Poker Players Alliance spent $940,000 on lobbying efforts in 2007, which puts them at the top of the list of organizations and companies that enlist firms to help them get into the ears of elected officials in the United States.

In 2007, $22.2 million was paid to lobbying firms by casinos, Indian tribes, online gambling companies, racetracks, and a hodgepodge of other entities who count as part of the gambling industry.

The largest spender was the American Gaming Association (AGA), which counts as members just about every casino and casino operator in the U.S. In 2007, the AGA’s lobbying bill was $1.7 million. According to the database at OpenSecrets.org, a non-profit organization that keeps track of political donations and the lobbying industry, the PPA spent the second most out of all of those with ties to gambling.

In 2006, the PPA spent $540,000, and in 2005, the first year it existed, $260,000.

“The real benefit -- what you get -- is a full-time team who’s dedicated to working on your issues. In 2007, the modest amount we spent on lobbying expenditures produced for our issue and of the industry and poker players, as well,” said PPA Executive Director John Pappas.

He said the lobbying efforts of the PPA helped focus attention on four specific bills, all of which remain in committees: H.R. 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act; H.R. 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act; H.R. 2607, the  Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act; and H.R. 2140, the Internet Gambling Study Act.

Pappas also says that his group’s efforts helped more than a dozen Congressmembers become co-signers to these bills, particularly to Rep. Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act.

“That comes with just general education and public relations, as well as getting in and meeting with members of Congress, and you can only do that with support from professional lobbyists,” Pappas said.

Bending the ears of Congressmembers is big business, and many companies spend into the six-figures in order to get their messages on the desks of politicians. For example, in 2007, PartyGaming, the parent company of PartyPoker, spent $660,000; Harrah’s spent $280,000; the Seminole Tribe of Florida spent $880,000; and the Venetian, $240,000.

A majority of the money PPA spent lobbying in 2007 ($480,000) went to Ogilvy Government Relations. That counted for a small portion if what the company collected from the many clients that hired it in 2007 to the tune of $21.4 million. The PPA also paid $180,000 to Patton Boggs LLP (which earned $38 million through lobbying in 2007), $160,000 to Park Strategies (which earned $2 million through lobbying in 2007), and $60,000 each went to the firms Barnes and Thornburg and Mattox Woolfolk LLC. 

The PPA has four full-time and one part-time employees and counts 934,703 people as members.

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