[BluffTHIS!]

This situation illustrates again why we need to make clear the distinction between poker and sports betting. Any ties to crime have totally to do with sports betting, and any use of online gambling for money laundering for very large sums again is mostly tied to sports betting.

So when you write your congressman, or get a negative reply like this and intend to write again, stress that you recognize the potential problems with other forms of gambling, but that poker is a skill game played by people directly against other people, and mostly for aggregate sums much smaller than that involved in sports betting. And that thus you as a constituent expect your congressman to be smart enough to recognize this difference and in fact treat poker differently, and more favorably.

Don't let sports betting sink poker is the bottom line. And if you fail to make the distinction to your representatives in Congress then you are letting that happen.