Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 7/30

Action:
- Call Sen. Barack Obama on Monday, 7/30, and on Thursday, 8/2 to ask for his support. Post notice of this call effort wherever possible.

Ongoing advocacy:
1. Write to Treasury and DOJ officials AT LEAST ONCE PER WEEK to request the minimum possible UIGEA regulations.
2. Regularly contact Congress.
3. Contact your governor and to your state representatives.
4. Write to newspapers and post to blogs.

Please see Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 7/30 for details. Thanks!

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for weeks of 8/6 & 8/13

Action:
- Write to Congress (your senators and your rep) with a rebuttal to one of the 8/1 FoF letters.
- Write to Congress (your senators and your rep) to ask for their support and to ask where they stand on Internet gaming. Reference the Congressmen For and Against Online Gambling article in the letter.

Ongoing advocacy:
1. Write to Treasury and DOJ officials AT LEAST ONCE PER WEEK to request the minimum possible UIGEA regulations.
2. Regularly contact Congress.
3. Contact your governor and to your state representatives.
4. Write to newspapers and post to blogs.

Please see Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for weeks of 8/6 & 8/13 for details. Thanks!

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

Fight for Online Poker!! Weeks of 9/24 & 10/1

1. It’s time for an IGREA and SGPA push. This year’s Congressional session will end soon, so let’s ALL get some letters out to Congress this week and next (including House and Senate leaders)!

2. Write to Congress (separate letters from the ones above) and to five U.S. companies to explain the upcoming WTO trade concessions. Let them know they’re expected to finance online horse racing and fantasy football.

3. Continue to write to the NFL and their sponsors to complain about the NFL’s advocacy of a ban for all Internet gaming (which goes beyond sports betting and beyond even UIGEA). Ask the NFL to negotiate a pro-poker deal with Rep. Frank.

4. Regularly write to newspapers and post to blogs. A few posts here and there can start to put us in the national zeitgeist.

Please see Fight for Online Poker!! Weeks of 9/24 & 10/1 for details. Thanks!

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

If you do nothing else this month, please go to the PPA automailer, at http://activate.pokerplayersalliance.org , and get a letter out to your congressman. It will literally take only one minute. There are two advocacy letters available....one for the Wexler bill (HR 2610) and another for IGREA. Either choose one, or send both (one now and one next week).

If you can do a little more, copy that automailer text, go to www.senate.gov and email it to both of your senators. This may take ten minutes. So, in eleven minutes, they'll have done more than 95% of Americans ever do in support of their freedoms.

Of course, if you can, please work through the this week's action plan, at Fight for Online Poker!! Weeks of 9/24 & 10/1.

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

i just did both in less than 5 mins. also did ones with my wife and parents names/emails.

Thx for all the links!

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

[ QUOTE ]
i just did both in less than 5 mins. also did ones with my wife and parents names/emails.

Thx for all the links!

[/ QUOTE ]
fsu, you're married? Some reason I thought you were very young. And lived with Obnxnole.

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

im 24 and yes, married. obnxnole was my roommate for a while in college.

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

[ QUOTE ]
im 24 and yes, married. obnxnole was my roommate for a while in college.

[/ QUOTE ]
oh sweet. grats.

Re: X-Post: Fight for Online Gaming!! Support the Frank Bill Here
 

Hi everyone,

We all (PPA and the 2p2 Legislation posters) cowrote the NEW PPA letter to Congress. It's at http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersallian...46&type=co.

It will take less than one minute to send so, if you care about your right to play poker online, please send it today. Thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Important action alert!!
 

Important action alert!!

The proposed UIGEA regulations have been released by the Department of the Treasury for public comment. This is our chance to affect the regs, as our comments. I ask everyone here who cares about Internet poker will submit comments in favor of freedom and liberty. Thanks!

The PPA has released a list of talking points for our comments. That way, we know our comments align with the best interests of poker. The article is at http://pokerplayersalliance.org/news...le.php?DID=293.

1. The proposed regulations should be modified to clarify that they don’t cover games predominantly determined by skill, such as poker, bridge, mahjong and backgammon. Section 5362(1)(a) of UIGEA defines a bet or wager as “the staking or risking by any person of something of value upon the outcome of a contest of others, a sporting event, or a game subject to chance,…” “Subject to chance” can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but in a gambling context it should reasonably be taken to mean games like roulette or slots where players bet against “the house” and success is determined by chance. Poker players compete, not against the house, but against each other, and the success of a player over any significant time interval is determined by that players’ skill.

2. The regulators must define what is and isn’t “unlawful Internet gambling.” The federal and state laws governing Internet gambling are very ambiguous -- nearly all of them were written before the advent of the Internet, and it is not clear how they apply to Internet gaming. In the proposed rule, the regulators emphasize that it is not their intention to clarify this question, because to do so would require them to examine the laws of every state with respect to every gaming modality. Yet that is exactly what they are requiring every bank and payment system to do individually.

3. The regulators should refrain from implementing the regulations until the U.S. resolves its international trade disputes. The World Trade Organization has found the U.S. to be out of compliance with its obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services because of its attempts at prohibiting Internet gambling. This is likely to cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars in lost market share and export opportunities. The U.S. government is in negotiations with its trading partners over this matter. Inasmuch as these regulations arguably make that situation worse, the regulators should hold off on finalizing the regulations until the U.S. can resolve its international trade obligations.

4. The proposed regulations should not infringe on personal privacy. UIGEA deputizes banks and payment systems and turns them into the Internet morality police. These regulations should not compel banks to scrutinize the private transactions of individual poker players and others. To do so is hostile to the personal and financial privacy of every American with a credit card or checking account.

5. The UIGEA and the enforcing regulations should not apply to Internet poker nationwide. Federal case law has consistently held that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting and very few states have any laws against Internet poker. These regulations should be clear to only block those transactions which are in fact against the law. Games of skill which are not outlawed under current federal law – such as poker, chess, bridge and majong -- should be exempt from the UIGEA and the regulations.



The Legislation Forum discussion thread is at http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=1#Post12525391.