[Skallagrim]

While every informed opinion deserves some respect, it is silly to simply accept opinions of "those in the know" as fact. This same group of folks you speak of hollabolla predicted the UIGEA was dead in the water last year.

There are 3 key factors at work here:

1) Bush's presidency - since it is indeed highly unlikely to have a veto proof number of congresspersons on our side, I agree that a change in legislation is not going to occur until 2009. This, I believe, is one reason it has stalled: why work to pass a bill that will surely be vetoed? (that last statement reflects legislators thinking - for us any movement forward, even a vetoed bill is a good thing).

2) The WTO, Banks, and the national debt - Bush is slowly bankrupting this country (whether you support or oppose the Iraq war, paying for it by borrowing money from the Chinese is a BAD thing), and so Congress is going to have to seek revenue from somewhere, and Banks dont like paying for the UIGEA, and companies wont like the trade sanctions that will come (in one form or another) from the WTO, This is a group of allies who can easily be persuaded to side with us, because the Number of FOF "gamblng is evil" types out there is small - gambling is one of the fastest growing industries across the US right now, it clearly would not be so if the majority of americans really believed it was "evil." This economic pressure is what will insure that something will have to happen.

3) Individual rights do matter to a lot of Americans, and a lot of Americans play poker. Should the PPA ever figure out how to work even half as effectively as the NRA, we would be home free.

Put the 3 factors above together, allow for some of the machinations of big money US gaming interests to play out, and you (we) have every reason to hope that new legislation will give us back our lost rights in 2009. But to be prepared for success in 2009, we have to continue the fight through 2007 and 2008.

Skallagrim