New Activist Plan: Don't Panic

[chrisptp]

As this legislative situation develops, a lot of people (myself included) are wondering what they can do. I'm sure there are a few things; the one I'm promoting is this:

I would strongly encourage everyone to spread a message of measured calm and rationality as opposed to panic and fatalism.

This especially applies to owners of websites and forums, or people who serve as 'poker news update hubs' for your group of friends.

I'm of the mind that conservative legislators aren't really aiming to 'ban' online gambling anyhow (it's almost impossible). Rather, their actual goal to inspire fear and uncertainty in high enough quantities that people choose to stop playing, starving the industry and making online poker de facto illegal.

As I already posted in the 'update' thread (before realizing that this was a more approp. place), over-reaction to a bill can do far more harm than the bill itself. A mass cashout, for example, can spook investors and rooms, and possibly crash a small room or two, leading to a mass-player-hysteria that fuels even more cashouts, more rooms going dark, stock prices of remaining rooms depressing, and so on.

These events will, of course, be picked up by the mainstream media and run ad nauseum, creating even more of a cloud over online poker / gambling, until it gets to the point where the common player / investor / webmaster decide it's not worth the risk and effort. Int his way, the bill doesn't destroy online poker so much as an immature, knee-jerk reaction does.

I think it's pretty important for individuals to hold the line on this one and not let a panic ensue. I think we all have a responsibility to pass along word of this legislation calmly and in context, as opposed to mass emailing everyone we know and saying 'NO MORE ONLINE POKER WTF.'

This battle always has been, and remains, a perceptual one. If enough people bail as a result of this legislation, the actual content, standards, enforceability, etc of the law become irrelevant - the industry will wither for a lack of funding and interest.