Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread

[Merkle]

Two points:
1. I'm appalled at how little (shall we say non-existent) coverage there has been on the WTO developements. When I look at other headlines on Google, Yahoo, MSN there are many that are extremely trival in comparison. Can anybody give an answer why there is so little coverage, other than, "it is not of interest to the average American citizen" because there were a large number of articles in the world news sections that would be of even LESS interests to the average American.

2. While looking for these issues I noticed that msnbc.com has a gutcheck America section http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18826755/
This allows the readers to tell MSNBC what issues are important to them and why. This appears to be fourm where we could stress the importance of the situation and hopefully get some public recogntion of the ramifications of the US actions to date.

As noted on other threads all this hoopla over poker is trival. But the invasion of our rights as free citizens in the privacy of our homes partaking in an activity that is legal in so many areas and forms is an ugly precedent to set or to accept. And when that is coupled with our treaty violations, the high-handed manner that we have and are dealing with other countries that are acting in good faith, and the short-sighted denial of our growing reliance on a world community it becomes some what frightening.

<grin> my $.02 for the moment

[Legislurker]

I think a lot of the problem is that editors:
1) Don't fully understand the legality/illegality of online gaming.
2) Know almost nothing about the WTO arbitration process, and let's face it, neither did we before this.
3) It is hard to explain to people in soundbyte news stories.
4) News at the WTO today won't affect anyone for months or years. The US has been losing to Antigua for 4 years and nothing has happened. I think they want an event or a panicked statement from the administration. And, usually, a WTO dispute gets settled before anything drastic happens, and they know that. Its not impending doom and gloom(in their minds).

I don't think we can change this perception among news purveyors. I have had trouble explaining this to my more educated friends. Imagine a news editor trying to write a story/opinion peice on a 3rd grade reading level thats 250 words or less.

[Merkle]

Thanks for the response. Yes, it is hard to condense all the issues and potential ramifications into a few simple statements. I've definetly learned this by trying to explain it to friends and relatives.

[TheEngineer]

I wrote the the Washington Post on Sunday...nothing published yet. I guess we'll see what happens. I'll post it here if it doesn't get published next week.

Also, let's all remember to keep Wikipedia up to date. I've updated the Internet poker and Internet gambling pages with IGREA and the Wexler bill. We can always update Frist's page, Kyl's page, Leach's page, etc.

As an aside, some social conservatives created "Conservapedia", at www.conservapedia.com. Apparently, allowing unfettered editing somehow results in a liberal bias. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] For example, on the "Kangaroo" article, it has a section on the origin on kangaroos that discusses how they got from Noah's ark to Australia. After that:

[ QUOTE ]
Other views on kangaroo origins include the belief of some Australian Aborigines that kangaroos were sung into existence by their ancestors during the "Dreamtime" [7] and the evolutionary view that kangaroos and the other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.[8]

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyway, let's not discuss Conservapedia or evolution on this thread; I merely share this with you to illustatrate the mindset of our opponents, and to provide one more site we can edit (I did tweak their "gambling" article).

[TheEngineer]

Also, let's all sign the anti-UIGEA petition, at www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/306149419 . See Casino Gambling Web Representatives Headed to Washington!

[TheEngineer]

Here's the letter I sent to the Washington Post last Sunday. No dice getting printed, though:

As stated in Friday’s op-ed, “On the Caribbean, 20/20 Blindness” (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101743.html), America has often demonstrated 20/20 blindness with regard to the Caribbean. The latest example is our failure to comply with a WTO ruling in a case brought by Antigua, where the WTO found America’s Internet gambling restrictions to be in violation of our WTO obligations (as reported by the Post on June 21 - www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062002151.html). Unfortunately, America refused to negotiate with Antigua. In fact, following the loss, in the twilight of their power the Republican Congress passed further restrictions on Internet gambling.

Now, Antigua is demanding commercial sanctions worth more than $3.4 billion each year. They will seek permission from the WTO to target American copyrights and patents. They don’t need America’s permission; they can simply legally pirate Hollywood movies and Microsoft software. The EU, Japan, China, India, and others have joined the case and will be demanding trade concessions of their own. So, the Bush administration’s unilateral foreign policy will cost us again. Not only will we lose money; we’ll also potentially lose an important tool in fighting various Chinese and EU unfair trade practices.

There is a solution. The House Financial Services committee has been debating a bill that regulates and taxes gambling on the Internet. They held a hearing on June 8 (www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/ht060807.shtml) where they proved Internet gambling can be effectively regulated. Unfortunately, the administration prefers prohibition, in clear violation of our trade obligations with Antigua and with the world.

[Chino Brown]

Engineer, you are my hero!

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the USTR:

June 29, 2007

The Honorable Susan Schwab
United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20508

Dear Ambassador Schwab:

I am writing concerning “United States - Measures Affecting the Cross-Border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services (WT/DS285)”, the WTO challenge to U.S. Internet gambling laws by Antigua and Barbuda. As you know, the WTO’s Appellate Body found that the U.S. is not in compliance with our WTO obligations with respect to allowing access to our remote gambling services market. Unfortunately, rather than trying negotiate in good faith with our fellow WTO members within the framework of our agreements, we instead decided to ignore our trading partners’ concerns by withdrawing from the gambling services sector of GATS. This has resulted in Antigua’s demand for $4.3 billion per year in compensation, to come from American intellectual property and copyrights. Additionally, the EU, Macau, India, Canada, Costa Rica and others are lining up for damages as well. It seems our action has significant potential to harm us in many areas while gaining us nothing (aside from the continuation of an unpopular prohibition).

It is very unfortunate that a quibble over a card game has led to this. Our credibility is now at stake, as our refusal to respect the rulings of the WTO has potential to harm our other trade initiatives, particularly with regards to issues of trade fairness with China and the EU. Also, if we choose to continue to disregard our obligations under the WTO, American companies will be stuck with the bill, both from Antigua as well as the repercussions from the trade concessions being sought by the EU and others. Additionally, the U.S. is a world leader in providing of gaming services, so we do need the WTO in this regard as well.

I urge you to reconsider this unprecedented move of withdrawing from the gaming sector of GATS. Instead, let’s keep our international commitments. Keeping out commitments is good for America. I ask that we renounce our withdrawal from the gaming sector of GATS and that we initiate negotiations with Antigua and Barbuda. After all, we made a commitment, and our word should be our bond.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

The Engineer

Cc: President George Bush, my senators, my rep, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV, Senate Majority Leader)

[TheEngineer]

<font color="red">Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for weeks of 7/2 &amp; 7/9 </font>

<font color="brown">Based on our group discussions, let's do the following:

1. In addition to writing to U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab, let's also write to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Let them both know you object to U.S. actions relating to Antigua's online gambing access case. Please see posts within this thread for sample letters. </font>

USTR Contact Info:
contactustr@ustr.eop.gov
600 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20508
WTO-Related Issues: 202-395-3063
www.ustr.gov/Who_We_Are/Contact_Us/Section_Index.html

Sen. Harry Reid is at http://reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542

Your senators are at www.senate.gov
Bush is at comments@whitehouse.gov

Others:
Justice Department: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Your representative: www.house.gov
Republican National Committee: Chairman@gop.com
Democratic National Committee: www.democrats.org/contact.html
Speaker Nancy Pelosi: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

<font color="brown">We get a lot of “bang for the buck here”, as one letter will go to several individuals. Send one (email and hard copy) to Ambassador Schwab and Senator Reid. Then, email the same letter to each senator (separately). Add “cc: Senator xxxx to the top line”. <u>Let’s each send one letter per month to the USTR and the copy recipients until this is resolved.</u>

1a. Please sign the "Repeal UIGEA" online petition at www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/306149419 . The site is reputable, and the signatures will be hand-delivered to Capitol Hill by representatives of Casino Gambling Web in July (see http://www.prnewsnow.com/P.......20D.C.). Be sure to check the box to hide your name if you don't want it displayed on the website. Also be sure to deselect the boxes that offer to send regular updates if you don't want them. Focus on the Family is warning their members about this march, so it must be a good thing. See www.citizenlink.org/FOSI/gambling/cog/A000004244.cfm .

2. Please write to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke <u>at least once per month</u> until the UIGEA regs come out. Day 270 will be July 13th or so. In case they're trying to meet this date, let's get out some mail this week (even if they don't read it in time to use it, you can still post the contents during comment period). Let's ask them not to exceed the specific mandates of UIGEA when drafting legislation. Let's ask them to exclude all ACH transactions (too burdensome for banks to filter). Also,remind them that online poker is not illegal under any federal law. We should ask them to require unambiguous state laws, so banks aren't in the position of trying to interpret state laws that may or may not apply to Internet gambing.

Focus on the Family is asking their members to write to Paulson and Bush to request tough regulations. Also, Sen. Kyl asked Gonzales for tough regulations during the AG Senate hearings. We should counterbalance this. </font>

Addresses:

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

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

The Honorable Ben S. Bernanke
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Washington, D. C. 20551
http://www.federalreserve.gov/feedback.cfm

<font color="brown">3. Now that we have bills out there, we should try to work on advocating for the legislation. Let's write to newspapers, magazines, post to blogs, etc. Since we proved our position in the 6/8 House hearing, let's post the link to the hearing webcast wherever we can.

Letters to the editor, Washington Post: letters@washpost.com
Letters to the editor, New York Times: letters@nytimes.com

4. Continue to contact your senators and representative. <u>Let’s call and send snail mail at least once every four to six weeks</u>. Let’s email at least once per week or biweekly. Some of these may be carbon copies of letters to others (like the USTR, Frank, Bachus, etc).

We have many issues, so we can focus on one item for each letter while rotating. It does not matter to our movement which items you choose; any communication against attempts to ban online gambling at the federal level work in our favor. After all, if IGREA fails due to lack of public support, it’s not like the media will report that people disagreed with giving power to the FinCEN or to issues relating to shutting out foreign operators. They’ll report, “Frank’s Attempt to End Online Gambling Ban (as if there is such a thing, but the media don’t care) Fails to Draw Public Support”. Our opponents will say, "see, Americans are happy we’re 'protecting the public'". If Wexler’s bill fails, the media won’t report that some felt it legitimized UIGEA. They’ll report that Americans didn’t even wish to legalize poker. This year, we’re all about generating support for our general position, which is that online gaming should not be prohibited. Let’s focus there. So, here are some issues we can rotate:

- Antigua’s WTO case
- IGREA
- Wexler’s bill: H.R. 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act
- Praise for the 6/8 hearing. www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/ht060807.shtml; webcast archived at http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wm...ring060807.wvx
- Shelley Berkley's study bill </font>

Thanks everyone!

[TheEngineer]

June 29, 2007

The Honorable Ben S. Bernanke
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Washington, D. C. 20551

Dear Chairman Bernanke:

I understand that some who wish to prohibit law-abiding Americans from choosing to play online poker in the privacy of their own homes have been lobbying you for UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006) regulations that would, in essence, create an Internet gaming prohibition. This concerns me greatly as a freedom-loving American, as Congress did not ban any gaming with UIGEA. It seems anti-poker interest groups would have you disregard this fact and would use the Federal Reserve System’s banking regulations as a back door means of creating the prohibition they were unable to win legislatively, while burdening our financial institutions with the enforcement duties.

As you know, UIGEA does not make Internet gaming illegal. Rather, it merely provides a means for enforcement of federal and state Internet gaming laws that were already in effect when UIGEA passed. Prohibitionists like Senator Kyl and Congressman Bachus are fond of saying this. However, they neglect to mention the fact that very few types of online gambling are illegal under federal law. Specifically, federal law covers only some sport betting. As for state laws, very few states have outlawed Internet gaming. Regarding other states, prohibitionists are trying to use ambiguous, arcane gambling laws to claim that some types of Internet gaming MIGHT be illegal in their states. To keep from placing an unfair burden on our banks, I ask that the upcoming UIGEA regulations apply only where laws are unambiguous in their application to the Internet and to specific forms of gambling illegal under those state laws. After all, if states actually wished to ban Internet gaming, they would have done so in an unambiguous fashion, especially if they wished to have the federal government take the unprecedented step of enforcing it.

Additionally, I ask that the regulations exclude the highly automated ACH system, as the addition of manual verification steps to ACH would be overly burdensome.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,