Goals & Objectives of a New Poker Lobbying Organization

[Troll_Inc]

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troll - We cannot accept funds from poker sites - foreign corps cannot lobby congress,the money has to come from US Citizens. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but this is the way I have read the FEC regs concerning PAC's

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That actually does make sense.

However, they need to do something.

1. Form their own organization and request meetings with appropriate sympathetic members of US congress
2. Figure out what other international corps do to protect their interests when dealing with the US as a place of business.

More hostile if above goes no where.
1. Aid Antigua with the WTO issue
2. Form an alliance with a country and generate press for this issue

In any event, I would suggest they are contacted and open line of communication is kept open at high level between them and this new players association. And the ones that aren't interested, I would go out of my way to do everything possible to boycot them. To reiterate, they really have been printing money and not doing anything about this situation for quite a while. It must be made clear to them that they have to play a large role or the fate of the whole online poker industry will be left to outside forces.

[jason75]

[ QUOTE ]
troll - We cannot accept funds from poker sites - foreign corps cannot lobby congress,the money has to come from US Citizens. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but this is the way I have read the FEC regs concerning PAC's

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One of the important reasons to speak to an attorney is that the law is much more complex than this. The org will likely be a 501(c)4 and set up PACs to give to campaigns. Thus while the PACs could not accept this money, the main org could and do other activities with it.

Again, there is no substitute for an attorney on these matters.

BTW - do any of you actually have contacts with poker rooms? If not, they likely won't give you the time of day.

[Troll_Inc]

Can someone who knows lobbying well tell us if "Thank you for smoking" is an accurate description of what occurs in lobbying? Or is it just Hollywood?

(I thought it was an excellent movie and is how I might imagine lobbyists work)

[Richas]

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It is worth noting as well that we want fish money in poker and not drained via slots.

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Just to let you know this is not a great campaign slogan. Also you need recreational players to support your organisation, this is about freedom not professionals grinding the last penny from some addict.

[jason75]

Ok guys, I've got an annual campaign to run and a national conference to get ready for . . . I'll try and be back in a couple of days.

[JBMSweden]

Posted this originally in the "Lets organize" topic...

"I jumped over a lot of posts so I might be repeating stuff.

Basic points;

1 - What you want to achieve is something that has been achieved in the past in a lot of European countries. Nearly all gambling within Europe used to be monopolies or oligopolies (right word in English?). The internet changed all that. VERY MUCH can be learned of how the legislation was changed with the help of interest groups, gamblers and betting companies. There is bound to be people who have been involved in that process on this forum. I personally played a small part by being the founder of the biggest swedish gambling information site (and NO, I am NOT blowing my own trumpet...besides - the US is a whole different ball game so I dont think I could contribute much anyway...). The knowledge is out there especially those who have worked towards the Scandinavian, Italian and British market.

2 - The funding COULD be gigantic if this is done the right way. The only way that gambling operators work together is when they are facing a massive external enemy (just as states work...) - in this case the US legislation. The gambling operators would definitely be willing to sponsor events, pay rolls etc etc if they think the long term goals are achievable.

3 - Obviously a whole NEW legislation would be wanted where poker is treated differently but in my view this will never happen. Poker has always and will always be part of the Casino hemisphere. Yes - it is a game of skill but not as much as chess etc etc (you know the reasoning so I am not going to bother you with that one). However - just because poker is part of the Casino hemisphere does NOT mean that it cant have its own special legislation. As far as I know every single individual game in Casinos have their own comments and legislation of proper conduct and implementation.

4 - The ORGANIZATION would have to be completely independent. No board members or people working can have ANY financial connection with any single gambling operator (allthough the funding is from gambling operators it has to be impartial and neutral). I dont even know if its advisable that book publishers or other people connected with the poker world should have anything to do with it. I think the right way forward from a legislative point of view is arguing the free trade factor and not the skill factor...(I might very well be completely wrong about this...). The organization should also monitor poker operators and gambling companies and prove that it works to legalize, monitor and safeguard the good game of poker which also means to inform of operators who are not trustworthy etc etc. This would enhance the credibility of the organization.

5 - It is going to take time and money and the organization would need trustworthy people who work with it full time and not a bunch of keen poker players who are willing to sacrifice time and money for a good cause. This has to be done professionally. Personally a dream team to me would look like this;
- an attorney with loads of experience of gambling and gambling operators (preferably someone from Vegas who have worked with or against the big casino operators)
- a couple of legal eagles with some kind of past in Washington lobbying
- former CEO, FCO or Marketing Director from one of the big European operators (Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Victor Chandler etc etc) who has knowledge and experiencve of the European market in the last 10 years (where so much can be learned in my view)

Board should consist of one or two legal dinosaurs with lots of clout, someone from media with deep knowledge and even more clout than the legal dinosaurs...

I am rambling quite a bit but thats my 2 cents...

And my word I do feel sorry for all you Americans!

Anybody who is a personal friend of the next president should also be on the board... "

One should also consistently point out to the government the massive amounts of tax revenue they are missing out on from the gambling operators...

/Jesper

[BluffTHIS!]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It is worth noting as well that we want fish money in poker and not drained via slots.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to let you know this is not a great campaign slogan. Also you need recreational players to support your organisation, this is about freedom not professionals grinding the last penny from some addict.

[/ QUOTE ]


Richas,

That isn't a campaign slogan but a reason for why our interests aren't totally aligned with those of the casinos, either B&M or online. And although I believe all honestly run gambling should be legal and regulated, I and most others here are primarily interested in poker. What would you care if the Vic no longer had roulette but only poker? Wouldn't more of your fellow Brits play poker then?


jason,

Ok thanks for your replies above. I think we're wording ourselves differently, although as I said I view what we need as a primarily ground up (from the state and individual grassroots level) organization, rather than a top down one. I will admit though that PPA has soured me on the latter, and that with the right board that actually represented and allowed input from the total membership, I wouldnt' have a problem with most policy decisions being made at the top.

[addictontilt]

Guys - what Jason says made sense both in PM's and in here -If i am reading this stuff right, we can set up the 501 thingy (yes its a highly technical term) Take money in that way, fund the ops cost of the PAC, use the PAC to lobby, possibly fund a 527 to advertise, and generally raise hell, and let the PAC be funded by US players and let the 501 be funded by the foreign (sorry) players and corps???

and yes i did get the attorney contact that Jason recommended, but I don't think we are ready to bother him.

thoughts?

[Richas]

OK Bluff - honestly though anyone involved in this campaign needs to not say stuff like that ever, especially in a public forum.

[ekdikeo]

My opinion is that it's completely and utterly useless to at all do anything involving sports. As far as I know, Nevada has the only legal sports betting in the country, and I'm sure they'd like to keep it that way.

I see that there are several fronts:
(1) Online poker
(2) Recreational/Home games (could tag in free and/or cheap public games, like bars here maybe?)
(3) Charity games
(4) Professional/Casino/Card room games

There are other things, as well - do we want to include other games? Blackjack leaves a nasty taste in people's mouths, presuming automatically that it is 100% gambling. But there are other games, Bridge, Gin, etc, that could be used as a favorable comparison if people try and use the "but poker is all chance, all gambling!" .. I don't know of anywhere that it's not legal to hold a bridge game or a game of gin (at least that anyone's made a deal about), but there are places where if you say "poker" you might as well find yourself in the county clink.

I'm sure that (1) is a super high priority, with all of us (right?) being Internet players. What do we want to do with the Internet aspect? Do we want to encourage it to become a standard regulated game, as current casinos are in each state, or do we want to try to return to what we had in September? Is there an existing body that we can work with if we want to have it operating in the U.S.?

I'm for keeping the money in the U.S., myself. Do the U.S. based casinos (are they actually owned by U.S. companies? I know MGM is owned by Sony...) want to run online card rooms? Or do they want to support other people who would want to run online card rooms?

As far as #2 goes, it is absolutely horrible that in some places, I could technically be arrested, for having a $5 game with my friends over a couple cases of beer.

As far as #3 goes, I guess there are a lot of regulations as far as charity games (like I think in Michigan, greater than 50% of the buy-in to a charity tournament has to go to the charity), and it's just plain flat out illegal in other places.

#4 worries me as much as the "Do the casinos want the U.S. to have legal online games?" question. Do the casinos want to expand the areas that they can do business in directly, or do they want to suck people into Vegas, and Atlantic City, the Meccas of games?