Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 4/9

[TheEngineer]

Are you still tired of having your rights trampled on by grandstanding politicians? I am. Guys, we've had some successes since UIGEA passed, including the following:

- Frist is gone, as is Leach
- Barney Frank (D-MA, Chairman of the Financial Services Committee) has publicly taken our side. He'll introduce legislation around 4/18 in favor of online gaming. I think our support may have helped this, at least a little.
- Ron Paul (R-TX) sent several of us emails (even those of us not in his district) specifically stating he'll support Barney Frank's efforts. Coincidentally, that's EXACTLY what we asked him for in one of our weekly action items.
- Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Jon Porter (R-NV) have proposed legislation to study legalized and regulated online gambling. Again, one of our action items hit the mark. While they likely would have done this anyway, our support gave them some additional ammo to proceed forward.
- The WTO ruled in favor of Antigua over the U.S. in the issue of the U.S. banning online gaming.
- Banks are bitching about being the UIGEA's enforcers.
- Al D'Amato joined PPA (great news overall, I think...folks concerned about the focus of PPA should join for free and tell PPA that they wish PPA to fight for all online gaming).

Seems this is the time to fight. After all, the UIGEA-driven regs haven't been put in place yet, stuff is moving in our favor, and we're being heard. Given all this, I'd like to ask everyone here to participate this week. Unfortunately, we're not now even close to having the minimum number of people we need to have synergy in numbers. If only a few people participate, we won't really be a group; rather, we're just a few individuals. So, we need everyone's time and effort. Please give it a try this week. You'll be glad you did.

As Barney Frank will be submitting legislation in the next two weeks to the House Financial Services Committee, let's focus there this week. Even if you've written to these folks some time ago, please do so again, this time simply requesting that they cosponsor Frank's legislation. We asked Ron Paul specifically for that and he responded affirmatively. Let's get more congressmen to do the same.

<font color="brown">Primary Action:
- contact the majority and minority offices of the House Financial Services Committee and the Financial Institutions Subcommittee (one phone call AND one snail mail letter...see the next post for contact info).
- send thank-you letters to Barney Frank and Ron Paul for their support. They're going out on a limb not for constituents, lobbyists, or donors, but solely because they believe in freedom....our freedom. They get nothing at all except for our gratitude. Let's give it to them. The letters will go a long way in showing that Americans want this repealed.
- if you haven't yet, contact your representative and ask him/her to cosponsor Frank's repeal efforts

The letters don't have to be fancy. All they have to do is ask the members to support Frank's legislation. This is easy.

Additional Actions:
- ask your poker site to contribute to PPA like FullTilt recently did.
- write a short letter to your local newspaper about your desire for the U.S. to give us freedoms others, including even Russians and Eastern Europeans, take for granted.
- if feeling ambitious, print out letters for your friends to sign and mail</font>

Thanks to everyone who participates. I'm looking forward this week's fight for our rights. Please reply to this thread if you participate. Thanks!


-----------------------------------

Prior Action Plan threads:

Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 2/26 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&amp;Number=9300584&amp;an=0&amp;page=2#Post 9300584)
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/5 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&amp;Number=9397718&amp;an=0&amp;page=2#Post 9397718)
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/12 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&amp;Number=9508311&amp;an=0&amp;page=2#Post 9508311)
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/19 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&amp;Number=9600378&amp;an=0&amp;page=0#Post 9600378)
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/26 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&amp;Number=9697336&amp;an=0&amp;page=0#Post 9697336)
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 4/2 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/5495584/page/1#Post5495584)

[TheEngineer]

Contact Info:

House Committee on Financial Services (http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newcommittee.cgi?)
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4247

Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-371A
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-7502

----------------------------------------------

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit (http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newcommittee.cgi?)
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129D
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4247 (same as parent committee)

Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-301C
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-2258

---------------------------------------------

Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5931


Congressman Ron Paul
203 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone Number: (202) 225-2831

[TheEngineer]

Some discussion points:

- America is a free country. We should be as free to play poker at home as British, Russians, and Eastern Europeans are. Moralists shouldn't be able to force their ideas of morality on others through force of law in a free country.

- This bill forces U.S. banks to act as the moral police of America; it shifts the costs to them as well.

- Stockholders in banks should complain about being forced to foot the bill for this.

- American companies are at risk of being completely shut out of the Internet gaming market. Existing Internet companies have already developed business models that don't rely on American players. America is losing a lot of potential revenue.

- The U.S. should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce the age limits. Also, money-laundering issues can be monitored.

- Compliance with the latest WTO ruling

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the subcommittee Republicans (my letter to the full committee is virtually identical):

April 8, 2007

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-301C
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representatives:

I'm writing to ask you to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is big government nanny-statism at its worst. I believe the outrage of my fellow poker players contributed strongly to the Democratic win in the last election. It's not just me; many Republican core supporters do not support the big government nanny state. That's why the Contract with America was so enthusiastically received by the Republican rank-and-file. In the interests of freedom and bipartisanship, I ask the committee to support Chairman Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation.

The impact of UIGEA includes the following:

· This law forces American banks to function as the moral police of America. It shifts the costs and other burdens of enforcement to them as well.

· As a result of this law, Americans are now less free than even Russians and Eastern Europeans.

· The Department of Justice has elected to act outside the scope of existing federal law. The recent heavy-handed DOJ arrests of the founders of Neteller and the seizure of pending EFT transfers from Neteller to American citizen are outrages. It seems the DOJ has a vendetta against U.S. online gamblers who broke no federal laws by playing. In other words, although they are part of the executive branch, they’ve elected to create their own laws – laws that have not been introduced through your subcommittee or approved by Congress.

· The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce age limits while establishing procedures for money-laundering monitoring.

· The U.S. should comply with the recent WTO ruling that concluded that our restrictions on Internet gambling constitute an unfair restraint of trade.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TE

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the subcommittee Democrats (my letter to the full committee is virtually identical):

April 8, 2007

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129D
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representatives:

I'm writing to ask you to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is big government nanny-statism at its worst. I believe the outrage of my fellow poker players contributed strongly to the Democratic win in the last election, and I believe the Democratic Party has a historic opportunity to win the support of millions of freedom-loving individuals across the country by supporting Chairman Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation. I urge the subcommittee to support this legislation.

The impact of UIGEA includes the following:

· This law forces American banks to function as the moral police of America. It shifts the costs and other burdens of enforcement to them as well.

· As a result of this law, Americans are now less free than even Russians and Eastern Europeans.

· The Department of Justice has elected to act outside the scope of existing federal law. The recent heavy-handed DOJ arrests of the founders of Neteller and the seizure of pending EFT transfers from Neteller to American citizen are outrages. It seems the DOJ has a vendetta against U.S. online gamblers who broke no federal laws by playing. In other words, although they are part of the executive branch, they’ve elected to create their own laws – laws that have not been introduced through your subcommittee or approved by Congress.

· The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce age limits while establishing procedures for money-laundering monitoring.

· The U.S. should comply with the recent WTO ruling that concluded that our restrictions on Internet gambling constitute an unfair restraint of trade.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TE

[TheEngineer]

bump.....

Anyone interested in this?

[Artsemis]

I confess I haven't been following your series of threads TE, but from the looks of it they are very underrated here by others as well.

These posts are great for letting people know not just what has been happening recently but how they can take a few minutes and do their part... if everyone does a little it can achieve a lot and I, for one, will be following these threads much more closely.

Thanks for these, TheEngineer.

[morgant]

i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[Emperor]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Signed

[autobet]

Thanks for reminding us to stay active. I called both offices to let them know I support their efforts. I am sending Barney Frank a check with a note why I am sending it. Here are the mailing instructions I received over the phone:

Barney Frank for Congress
P.O. Box 260
Newton, MA 02460

[Bilgefisher]

The Engineer,
Many of us are reading and participating whether its obvious or not. Please keep up the good work. Hopefully this builds some momentum. To be honest I wish the PPA orchestrated things like this more often.

The legislation forum is not highly trafficked, maybe some folks are unaware that these action plans even exist.

[cdlarmore]

it would be pure gravy if 2+2 mods auto posted this across all limits and no limits for more action!!!! As well as the net forum, this is as good as it gets, a leader with a plan, genreally a good plan
i strongly support crossposting this mods, and i think a lot of others will, this guy is doing his best to protect the fundamentals of what this ENTIRE SITE IS ABOUT

[TheEngineer]

[Emperor]

where is the, "Will fight in a bloody war against these fascists!" option?

[TheEngineer]

As we got a late start on this one this week, let's continue this plan for the week of 4/16 as well. Please participate...we can make a difference. Thanks.

[TheEngineer]

Let's keep writing to the subcommittees and to Frank. Barney Frank says he needs to hear more from us (Barney Frank article (http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1242054520070412?src=041207_1303_FEATURES_int ernet)). Let's make that happen!

[TheEngineer]

My reply from my congressman:

April 9, 2007

Thank you for your continued correspondence about legislation related to Internet gambling that passed in the 109th Congress. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you know, H.R. 4411, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act signed into law as part of a larger bill package on October 13, 2006. The internet gambling provisions will prevent the use of credit cards and fund transfers for unlawful internet gambling and block financial transactions associated with illegal gambling.

While many Americans have the misimpression that internet gambling is legal because of the easy access to online casinos based offshore, it is not. The new provisions do not change the law, but rather provide new enforcement tools to help law enforcement and financial services companies crack down on this already illegal activity, This legislation received endorsements from the religious community, family groups, financial services groups and all the major professional sports organizations.

American dollars account for half of the $12 billion bet worldwide on the internet. FBI and Justice Department experts have warned that internet gambling websites are vulnerable to being used for money, laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing, As a member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, my colleagues and I have taken a particular interest in this issue. I have serious concerns about terrorist financing and the possibility of terrorists laundering money through unregulated, offshore online casinos.

House Financial services Chairman Barney Frank [MA-04] has expressed an interest in reprieving this issue. As a member of the Committee, I will take your support for a repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into consideration should the issue come up again.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on internet gambling. Also, you can sign up for the _____ District’s E-Mail Newsletter by visiting my website at http://__________.house.gov/emailsignup.aspx.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx

[TheEngineer]

My reply:

April 13, 2007
The Honorable **** ****
United States House of Representatives
**** **** House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman ****:

I thank you for your April 9th letter where you responded to my request that you work to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes by cosponsoring Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation. I’d like to share with you my humble opinion on the matter.

By way of introduction, I’m an engineer with one of the area’s larger employers. After a long day at work, I enjoy playing a little poker on occasion, and I prefer playing in the comfort of my own home with my wife at my side to playing in a smoky casino in *****. I happen to be skilled enough at the game to win significantly more than I lose, but that’s not really the point. Poker is an enjoyable game of skill, much as golfing or fishing. In fact, poker is one of the great American pastimes. Presidents, generals, Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress and average Americans have enjoyed the game for more than 150 years. It’s an honorable game.

As a conservative Republican, I share some of your concerns about online gambling. However, it’s not obvious that federal laws restricting our freedoms and liberties will solve these issues. After all, online gambling will continue internationally. In fact, the WTO has recently ruled the U.S. violated international trade law by prosecuting online gambling cases. As such, I urge you to support legalization with regulation. A regulated Internet gambling environment will facilitate age verification and collection of federal and state taxes. It will also reduce any potential vulnerability of gambling websites to being used for money laundering, drug trafficking, or terrorist financing. With regulation, potential problems can be controlled without taking freedoms from Americans. After all, Russians and Eastern Europeans can gamble online; it seems the U.S. should trust its citizens at least as much as Russia trusts theirs, right?

You mentioned the endorsements H.R. 4411 received from the religious community, family groups, financial services groups and all major professional sports organizations. I hope you’ll consider the fact that these groups do not necessarily represent the majority of voters in our district (or even the majority of Republicans in our district). As for religious and family groups, there is no prohibition against gambling in the Bible. As a Christian, I personally find it offensive that so many so-called religious folks are willing to give away our freedoms, especially in pursuit of a goal not even defined in the Bible. As for financial services groups, some credit card issuers may like H.R. 4411 (due only to the risk of losing players refusing to pay up), but I don’t believe banks wish to be the enforcers of H.R. 4411. As a result, I think you’ll find financial services groups to be net losers as a result of H.R. 4411. Finally, I believe the concerns of the major professional sports organizations relate only to sports betting. That concern can be addressed with a regulated online gaming environment.

Online gaming will continue to exist with or without the U.S. We’re losing our opportunity to control the games via regulation as well as the opportunities for U.S. companies to operate the games both domestically and internationally. This is costing America jobs and tax revenue.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TheEngineer

[demon102]

I like ur response to ur congressman. THE MODS SHOULD STICKY THIS IN EVER PART OF THE 2+2 FORUMS TO GET MAXIMUM EXPOSURE!!

[Uglyowl]

I like your above reply a lot! Thank you for what you are doing. I am going to use this weekend with the crappy weather to get busy catching up on letters I should have written over the past couple weeks.

As the tax deadline looms please remember how important it is to remember who our government is working for. I'll be damned if my tax dollars pay the government to sign laws against me playing I game I love on the computer.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks...I appreciate that.

Feel free to use whatever I post in any manner that helps our cause.

TE

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
I like ur response to ur congressman. THE MODS SHOULD STICKY THIS IN EVER PART OF THE 2+2 FORUMS TO GET MAXIMUM EXPOSURE!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. I posted reminders in almost all of the forums....hopefully we'll get good results.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
I like your above reply a lot! Thank you for what you are doing. I am going to use this weekend with the crappy weather to get busy catching up on letters I should have written over the past couple weeks.

As the tax deadline looms please remember how important it is to remember who our government is working for. I'll be damned if my tax dollars pay the government to sign laws against me playing I game I love on the computer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks! His letter indicated one of his staff actually read my earlier letters, so it was good to have the opportunity to write a real reply.

It sounds like Barney Frank needs us to show our support this week, so it's good timing.

[Python49]

Sadly to say, the poker community sucks when it comes to joining together to make voices heard. A+ for effort though.

[lippy]

Will someone, more or less, write me a letter to send to my representative. I have no how to write something like this.