Why did the major online poker networks do NOTHING?

[AndyH69]

Nigel Payne, Chief Executive of SportingBet, the company that owns Paradise Poker, did some very effective campaigning.

He put forward an excellent argument for regulation during an episode of CBS's 60 Minutes programme when he appeared in a debate with Jon Kyl. It was first shown in November last year, and then repeated in the last few weeks. By all accounts, Nigel did a fantastic job, and won many people round to his way of thinking. See here for a summary of the CBS episode.

He has also done a lot of lobbying, and is apparently quite a familiar face around Capitol Holl. He would doubtless have done more had not the recent arrests of David Carruthers (from BetOnSports) and Peter Dicks (from Sportingbet) made travel to the US too risky. (The state of Louisiana currently has a warrant out for his arrest).

Though unable to travel to the US, he still maintained his high-profile campaigning, as this article in The Times (UK national paper) shows.

And he had even recently announced that he would step down from the Chief Executive role so that he could dedicate more time to lobbying for industry regulation in the US.

Now that's not what I call doing nothing!