Very interesting conversation with one of PPA's DC Lobbyists

[betgo]

The online sites must have devoted a lot of resources to lobbying against this bill and they would be crazy not to. I am sure that is one of the first rules of this business. If you operate a poker room in a basement somewhere, you devote some resources to a "lobbying effort".

Also, it is wrong to assume they were not successful. This bill could have been much worse. The fact that the banks and ISPs got what they wanted is also to the advantage of the online sites.

[MicroBob]

1 - very informative post Hock. Thanks.



2 -
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But why do we have to get this information from 3rd parties? Why do we find out what the PPA is doing from a friend of a friend of a lobbyist? The main reason everyone is skeptical of the PPA is because Micheal Bolcerek isn't the one providing this info about their activities.

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completely agree.


3 -

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I mentioned the many nice press pieces opposing the legislation we've all seen in the past 6 months (60 Minutes, WSJ, NY Times, Wash Post, George Will's article, etc.) He said that many were not accidental, and were due in part to the work of PPA's PR people.



This is mostly silly.

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absolutely agree.
Perhaps SOME of their PR push got SOME of that information out.
But it's a real stretch to take even partial credit for all the different articles/editorials on this issue from the NYTimes to the Walla Walla Tribune.

But clearly the PPA publicity people are getting something accomplished as Bolcarek has been on a number of TV shows. And I assume they were partly responsible for arranging Sexton, Duke and Bolcarek to appear on the CNBC On The Money program.

But I wouldn't be patting myself on the back too much if I were the PPA publicity people though.

[Hock_]

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A little transparancy would help a lot with getting support from the general poker community. Every time a piece like this comes up there are always at least 30% of the posts that range from sceptical to downright distrustful with regards to the PPA. A lot of that would go away if they would just be a little less secretive.


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I said this to the guy probably ten times on the call.

[NorthDakota]

The mention of the PPA moving to the Local/State level seems promising to me. My State of North Dakota would be a logical choice. State representative Jim Kasper has gotten internet poker legislation through the house last year before the Senate and he's planning another attempt.

North Dakota is a small state and a vocal group of Poker Players in the state could influence.

Hopefully, the PPA will consider this possibility instead of tilting at the windmills of the Federal Government.

If state passes it... The Wall gets chipped away.

[davebwell]

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Banning online poker is an issue of personal freedoms guauranteed by the Constitution - the pursuit of happiness?

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Not to be a nit, but you can't find anything in the constitution about "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". This comes from the declaration of Independence which was written 13 years prior to the constitution. The ideas of functional government obviously changed over that period since our current constitution is the result of a failed initial attempt. (The Articles of Confederation)

[jah7_fsu1]

Thanks DB, I was about to post that. Many people mix it up, I'm not sure why.

[IndyFish]

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I think they also need to be working on producing a working regulation module to show this could be a very profitable industry if taxed in the US. The crooks on Capital hill can never turn down a cash cow....

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Actually, one other thing he mentioned is that PPA commissioned a respected economist to generate a model estimating the tax revenue lost from both the sites and players by not taxing & regulating. I've seen the number in some PPA press releases but can't recall it offhand.

The crooks on the Hill only can't turn down a cash cow if the milk is flowing into their own back pocket . . . or something like that.

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The number is 3.3 Billion annually. It was in a PDF from the PPA website about a study they commissioned. Can't find it now.

It seems one of the questions I asked earlier has been answered: Howard Lederer, Jesus, and Raymer are now on the PPA Board.