Draft letter to Attorney General Gonzales...please review and comment

[TheEngineer]

Here's my draft letter to Attorney General Gonzales and Secretary Paulson. I think we want to start writing to him. After all, Kyl is, as are major league sports. Please review my draft and comment, as this has been a tough letter for me to get just right. Once we have a good standard letter, I'd like to encourage us to write, and I'd like the PPA to have us write advocacy letters (same as our opponents did). Thanks.

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May 13, 2007

The Honorable Alberto Gonzalez
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The Honorable Henry Paulson
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear General Gonzales and Secretary Paulson:

On behalf of millions of law-abiding Americans, I am writing to ask you use care when drafting the regulations to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, so as not to exceed the specific requirements of the Act.

Many Americans oppose the UIGEA in its current form. It “passed” the Senate not by a majority vote on its merits, but by being snuck into the Safe Ports Act, where it was safe from debate and discussion. As a result, reform measures like HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, have already been introduced, and others are sure to follow.

However, the UIGEA is law, and your departments are tasked with enforcing it as written. As such, I humbly ask that you to just that – write regulations that address the legislation as written. I understand that some who advocate restricting the rights of Americans to choose to play poker and other games online have been lobbying your departments for regulations that are well beyond the scope and authority of UIGEA. For example, although recent court decision have defined the scope of the Wire Act of 1961 as covering wagering on only sporting events and races, in your last Senate appearance Sen. Jon Kyl specifically asked you for regulations affecting all Internet gambling. It seems that if Congress wanted to outlaw all Internet gambling, they would have passed an act that did so. They did not. I urge you to resist the efforts of individual politicians who would use your departments as a “back-door” means of creating laws that they were unable to create legislatively.

Internet poker and other non-sports betting are not illegal under any federal law. I ask you to keep this in mind as you draft the UIGEA regulations. Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TheEngineer

[TheEngineer]

Here the "sports coalition's" letter:
http://www.citizenlink.org/pdfs/fosi...ion_Letter.pdf

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March 22, 2007

The Honorable Alberto Gonzalez
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The Honorable Henry Paulson
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear General Gonzales and Secretary Paulson:

On behalf of our respective professional and amateur sports organizations, we are writing to urge you to issue strong regulations to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Our sports organizations each have strict policies against sports betting, because wagering on sports can corrupt athletic contests or create the appearance of corruption. Internet gambling also runs directly contrary to federal and state statutes against sports gambling, particularly the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. Though Internet gambling on sports has never been legal, easy access to offshore Internet gambling websites has created the opposite impression among the general public, particularly before this law was passed. Congress has also found, as have others who have examined this issue, that Internet gambling serves as a vehicle for money laundering, and that it has contributed to both underage and compulsive gambling.

We are gratified by recent reports from sports gambling insiders indicating that the new law has already caused wagering on the Super Bowl and “March Madness” to decline by over a third, even though there are no implementing regulations in effect yet. However, some of the same industry insiders believe that sports gambling will return to its previous levels by next year. Effective regulations are essential to ensuring that sports gambling does not rebound, but continues to decline as Congress intended.

Internet gambling businesses seek to – and until the passage of the UIGEA were easily able to – evade U.S. prosecutors by operating offshore. Thus, the most effective way to curtail Internet sports gambling is to interrupt the flow of funds between U.S.-based gamblers and offshore website operators. In the new law, Congress gave the Treasury Department, together with the Federal Reserve and the Department of Justice, responsibility for writing regulations to guide different types of payment systems in identifying and blocking these financial transactions.

Some payment systems, such as credit cards, can use “coding” to block online gambling funds. But other types of payment systems, such as checking and Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers, need a list of prohibited recipients or bank accounts in order to effectively block fund transfers. To prevent undue burden on financial institutions, such a list needs to be compiled and maintained by the government. The House Financial Services Committee Report clearly states that Congress intended law enforcement to provide financial institutions with the identities of illegal online gambling businesses or their financial accounts. The Committee Report also gave the agencies regulatory flexibility to develop alternative policies and procedures for “non-coded” transactions, consistent with the law’s goals.


We are asking you to commit the regulatory and law enforcement resources necessary to effectively implement the law. If proposed and final regulations are not strong, the illegal Internet gambling industry will once again see the U.S. market as a prime target for sports gambling operations.

Sincerely,

Rick Buchanan
Executive VP and General Counsel
National Basketball Association

Elsa Kircher Cole
General Counsel
National Collegiate Athletic Association

William Daly
Deputy Commissioner
National Hockey League

Tom Ostertag
Senior VP and General Counsel
Major League Baseball

Jeffrey Pash
Executive VP and General Counsel
National Football League

[Skallagrim]

Good Letter Engineer. If I thought that Mr. Gonzales was even remotely capable of understanding the issues you raised, I would urge all to write. But hopefully your letter will get passed to whatever career attorney in the department has been given the job. And hopefully that person will understand that online poker is not illegal everywhere in the US (maybe not even in MOST states), and thus realize he has to write regs that allow poker transactions from states like mine (NH), while barring them from states like Ohio. And I do not envy anyone that job.

[mbpoker]

I suggest to keep it strictly poker. Poker has a lot of glamour and the skill argument, which separates it from casino games.

[Tuff_Fish]

[ QUOTE ]
I suggest to keep it strictly poker. Poker has a lot of glamour and the skill argument, which separates it from casino games.

[/ QUOTE ]

I absolutely second that motion. Keep it to poker. We have a much better chance. Right now poker is being touted as "different" The Wall Street Journal article was reprinted in today's San Diego Union Tribune. Those type of articles lend credence to poker being more "legitimate".

My two cents.

Tuff

[PokerBob]

"For example, although recent court decision have defined".....fix this

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I suggest to keep it strictly poker. Poker has a lot of glamour and the skill argument, which separates it from casino games.

[/ QUOTE ]

I absolutely second that motion. Keep it to poker. We have a much better chance. Right now poker is being touted as "different" The Wall Street Journal article was reprinted in today's San Diego Union Tribune. Those type of articles lend credence to poker being more "legitimate".

My two cents.

Tuff

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. Do you have a link to the article?

[Tuff_Fish]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I suggest to keep it strictly poker. Poker has a lot of glamour and the skill argument, which separates it from casino games.

[/ QUOTE ]

I absolutely second that motion. Keep it to poker. We have a much better chance. Right now poker is being touted as "different" The Wall Street Journal article was reprinted in today's San Diego Union Tribune. Those type of articles lend credence to poker being more "legitimate".

My two cents.

Tuff

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. Do you have a link to the article?

[/ QUOTE ]


here

.

[TheEngineer]

Thanks everyone. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
"For example, although recent court decision have defined".....fix this

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice catch, thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] It used to read "although a recent court decision...". I needed a second set of eyes there.