Dinner With A Congressman

[spidey74]

The fact that there are so many people making a living on poker proves that poker truly is a game of skill in the long run.

Comparing poker to trading stocks is very applicable. We earned our money and no one should be telling us how we should spend it or invest it. How come NASDAQ isn't getting any heat in all this?? People bet that stocks will go up or down all the time and tons of trades are made over the Internet! I treat all my decisions in poker as investments!!

[mhcmarty]

From another thread

"3.3 billion in federal tax revenue and addition 1 billion in state tax revenue could be raised if the federal government were to regulate Internet poker.

from PPA's website"

This could be used as an additional source of revenue to support tax cuts or additional spending and an answer to the democratic proposal for "pay as you go".

It's been suggested that the "pay as you go" ideas of the democrats are an attempt to force the president to make other tough decisions in his attempt to make certain tax cuts permanent.

[mpslg]

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I still think it is comparable to alcohol. Many, if not most, college students start drinking alcohol before it is legal to do so. Many of them develop alcohol problems, but the majority learn how to control themselves.

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This is just silly. Underage drunk driving kills thousands of people a year. Binge drinking kills college students yearly. Gambling problems can certainly lead to other problems, but to compare the two as simliar doesn't do your argument any favors.

If you want to convince your congressman never to vote to allow online poker, just tell him it's like underage drinking.

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Agreed. Any comparison to other ILLEGAL activities is just stupid. Why create the association?

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I think you guys are missing my point. I'm not comparing it to ILLEGAL activities. It is legal for a person over 21 years of age to drink alcohol in the U.S. The congressman is arguing that all online gambling should be illegal no matter what because of the danger to the children. Using his logic, alcohol should be illegal because of the danger to the children. You don't make something illegal simply because some people can't handle it.

I'm not asking him to say online gambling is like "underage drinking." I agree that is silly. Online gambling is like alcohol. Most can handle it o.k., but there are a number of people who can't.

[jjshabado]

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Online gambling is like alcohol. Most can handle it o.k., but there are a number of people who can't.

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Its NOT the same. Alcohol is easily regulated. Online gambling isn't.

Plus........... ITS A FLAWED [censored]-ING ARGUMENT! It makes no arguments for how we should treat poker.

[faustusmedea]

The one recommendation you can make which he actually can do something about is to support/allow the Judiciary committee to craft a study. Such a proposal was made last year as a counter to the ban and voted down. I believe it was sponsored by John Conyers who is now the committee chair.

The study is supported by the AGA (B&M casinos) and would provide a lot of information which is missing in the current debate. It would be valuable to know with some degree of certainty whether a bunch of teenagers are mortgaging their futures at online poker (though I doubt it).

[braminc]

OP heres what you should do. Bring your laptop and a deck of cards. Log on to pstars or Ft or whatever and play a game with him. show him how much fun it is!! play for like micro micro stakes maybe, just to show him you can play for years without losing more than like 10 bucks.

then pull out a real deck of cards, and play some live poker as well. ask him, whats the difference? the only differences i can see is that online you can play with MORE people whenever you like. and of course you cant SEE the people but thats irrelevant here.

[Eihli]

Whatever you do, don't disagree with him. Compliment and agree with him, then slowly bring up things that support your point. Bring up small things that aren't very important that he'll obviously agree with to get him saying yes. You can then start slowly working your way up to bigger and more important topics. You can't tell him he's wrong for supporting the UIGA. You have to let him think he's been right all along, and he's just been looking at it the wrong way.

[Losing all]

I'm really looking forward to this trip report, please post it.

[doormat]

Barney Frank, a liberal, makes some great points you would expect a conservative to embrace. Whatever happened to the guiding conservative principle of less government and individual rights?

Barney on YouTube

[Misfire]

Ask him where the UIGEA fits in with the whole "ownership society" idea.