BarryG - Online Poker should be legal in 6 months

[peachy]

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Really glad to hear that Barry was chosen of all the pro's there.

Can you imagine, Rousso or Duke representin?

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why do u have to attack the girls?!?!

[Kirbynator]

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Really glad to hear that Barry was chosen of all the pro's there.

Can you imagine, Rousso or Duke representin?

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why do u have to attack the girls?!?!

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cause these two are stupid.

why are you so sexist?

[ericicecream]

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Really glad to hear that Barry was chosen of all the pro's there.

Can you imagine, Rousso or Duke representin?

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why do u have to attack the girls?!?!

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cause these two are stupid.

why are you so sexist?

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Say you don't like them if you want. Say Rousso's logic doesn't make sense to you sometimes. But calling them stupid is very naive. I'd add in "rude" too, but there are like 10,000 rude posts per day here so that wouldn't make a difference.

[Kirbynator]

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Really glad to hear that Barry was chosen of all the pro's there.

Can you imagine, Rousso or Duke representin?

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why do u have to attack the girls?!?!

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cause these two are stupid.

why are you so sexist?

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Say you don't like them if you want. Say Rousso's logic doesn't make sense to you sometimes. But calling them stupid is very naive. I'd add in "rude" too, but there are like 10,000 rude posts per day here so that wouldn't make a difference.


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[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[1o BoY]

I dont get the whole "can u lose your house playing online poker?" question, any online casino game is much worse than poker and could lose any amount of money pretty fast.

[GaryTheGoat]

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I'm sure it will be less than 6 months before congress realizes that they need to pass legislation contrary to the UIEGA. If it hasn't already happened, it will happen in a few weeks. I don't know how slow the process is and how much debate there will be as to whether there is a different approach that should be taken than the Frank and Wexler bills.

Of course, there is always a chance that they will try to push this off until after the 2008 election, but I didn't get this impression. These sanctions are serious. Also, they wouldn't mind getting some tax revenue that can be used to fund other bills.

Barry

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http://www.pokerroad.com/_/the_bear_blog/10-25-07/

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The Bear Blog
An audio update from Barry Greenstein, following him around the world as he searches for big cash games and tournaments with million dollar prize pools. The tone is generally light until the Bear gets into a serious dissection of a key poker hand that affects his bottom line.
10.25.2007 / Washington D.C.

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DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT BELOW IS AN UNPROOFED, INITIAL, PRELIMINARY, FIRST ROUGH DRAFT TRANSCRIPTION ATTEMPT.

bg: OCTOBER 25TH I arrived in Washington, D.C. on October 22nd around five pm. When I landed in Washington D.C., I had several messages on my blackberry and I wanted to find out how Poker Road was being received, ah, it had been put up the night before. There were issues at home and I was pressed for time to check into my hotel and make it to the Poker Players Alliance meeting at six o'clock. I was talkin on the phone while waiting for my bag. Well, I pace when I talk. Partly I do it, uh, just to get a small amount of exercise especially since I've spent so much of my life sitting at a poker table or in front of a computer. Umm, anyway, I was talkin on the phone and walkin around the baggage caro, carousel and I was gettin pretty frustrated that my bag hadn't appeared. I did this for about ten minutes before I realized that I was pacing at the same rate that the carousel was turning. I had actually been walking alon, alongside the same bag. Well, I had ta, all I had to do was stop and let my bag catch up to me. And, uh, (pokerclack) I'm telling you this to let you guys know what you're in for when you get as old and absent minded as I am.

Uh, anyway, I went to the poker world meeting that night, ya know, met everyone involved...and, uh, I was told that uh, they wanted me to go the next day, early in the morning to be on a televison show called Fox and Friends, Umm, so I got up after about five hours of sleep, I'd gotten about five hours of sleep to do this early morning show.

Chris Ferguson and I were invited to do it and we were told that it would be a friendly chat about why poker players were coming to Washington. Instead of it would be friendly, Chris and I were separated and each put in a dark room. We were told to look at a camera and wait for a voice. Ya know, when interviews are fair and friendly, they prep you with questions and topics so that you will be comfortable and have time to come up with good answers. It was obvious that they just wanted to try to make us look bad and, ya know, this was gonna be a hostile interrogation. Umm, anyway, at some point a voice from a microphone, uh, in my ear asked me, "If someone could lose a hundred thousand dollars playing poker on the internet?" I tried to explain that most people put something like a hundred dollars in their poker accounts and they play for entertainment, but people with bigger budgets can play for more, uh, as much as a hundred thousand. Then the voice asked if someone could lose their house. I answered that, well, you can't put your house in your online poker account.

Um, well, I didn't feel that I did particularly well on the hostile interview and Chris wasn't happy with the answers to the questions that he was asked. Um, so we spent the cab ride out of there planning how to answer hostile questions like these.

Uh, the rest of the day was spent with members of Congress in several scheduled meetings. The team of poker players was Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Vanessa Rousso, Chad Brown, Victor Ramdi, Ramdin and me. We usually went two or three poker players and a lobbyist
and we would usually meet a Congressperson and a staffer. Now, these are new words for me and I assume they are for you also. Ya know I'd heard about lobbyists and usually heard bad things about them. I didn't know what staffers were. A staffer is an assistant and advisor for a Congressman, uh, Congressperson, sorry. Um, uh, staffers are, at least the one's that we saw, under thirty years old, pretty savvy, they were straight shooters and they told us what we needed to do to accomplish our goals. They all seemed to be on our side of the online poker issue, ya know, partly because they're young, some had actually played some online poker. Uh, lobbyists...those are people that actually took us to meet the Congresspeople and the staffers. Lobbyists are well acquainted with Congresspeople and their staffer, that's their job. They work for these companies,uh, the, uh, Poker Players Alliance has hired four different lobbying companies and probably had overall maybe fifteen lobbyists work with us. The lobbyists are middlemen between us and the Congresspeople. And that, ya know, we hire them like I said, but, uh, they're known and trusted by the Congresspeople, ya know, the Congresspeople expect them to expedite the meetings and inform them why our concerns are important.

Anyway, we almost had a perfect score of getting Congresspeope to say that they would vote for the bills we want passed. Those two bills are the Barney Frank bill, which has as it's main point that adults should be free to do what they want in the privacy of their own homes and the John Wexler bill, uh, that makes...that wants to make an exception in the UIGEA that got passed that people aren't able to use their banks or credit cards. Anyway, the Wexler bill makes an exception for games of skill such as poker. Most objections, uh, by the Congresspeople were NOT on the issue of poker being a reasonable activity for adults to partake in, but really they just said they don't want to look bad to their constituents would, ya know, want to object to gambling becau, on the basis of morality or uh, because, ya know, it's potentially destructive.

So we, we educated them about poker typical internet poker usage. Uh, I've played actually in poker games with politicians and the ones I've met haven't ever impressed me with their intelligence and sincerity. Usually their main skill was in socializing and getting people to like them and elect them, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. The politicians that we met were more intelligent than I expected and they were honest about what we needed to do to demo...needed to demostrate to get them to be on our side.

All the politicians we met realized something had to be done for three reasons. The first was the current bill wasn't working, ya know, people still played and, and also it was an impossible bill to enforce. Uh, the second reason was uh, there's a lot of tax revenue being lost and budgets are tight these days and they all recognized that we could get money, ya know, possibly in the billions of dollars, by allowing online poker in the United States. And the third reason was there are sanctions, uh, as high as a hundred billion dollars to the European Union against the United States for violating World Trade Organization agreements with regard to letting American citizens use their online sites.

Uh, that last point seemed to be the one that, uh, got their attention the most. Ya know, they realize that, uh, you know that if they can get online poker legalized that one hundred billion dollar sanction threat goes away.

Um, the PPA, the Poker Players Alliance, as I said, which John Pappas is the CEO was extremely well organized and the whole process is obviously costly, ya know, all the meetings that were set up and paying for rooms, and paying for lobbyists and uh, you know I was there doin a lot of this stuff when, when I'm not around.

Um, ya know, for the most part, I was playing a new game, the Washington lobbying game. It was a little like poker where I had to read people and talk and act in an appropriate way. I had to come up with solutions to their problems, uh, with the situations THEY find themselves in, ya know, the Congresspeople find themselves in , ya know, their problems involve the financial issues, the social issues and satisfying their constituency.

There will be a Congressional hearing about online, about online poker that's scheduled on November 6th, uh, in front of Congress. They'll talk about the possible bills; the Barney Frank bill, the John Wexler bill and about other possible relevant legislation. John Conyers, a representative from Michigan will be during the meeting uh, Congressman Conyers is the chairman of the house judiciary committee, whatever that is.

There will be a few experts from related areas, including one professional poker player will be invited to testify and uh, ya know, it's kind of an honor, but I've been chosen as the poker player who will testify. If either of these bills pass, and frankly, from talking to the people, uh, from the meetings we had they're probably gonna pass it's probably not gonna be that long. I would be surprised, uh, if it would be more than six months.

Uh, anyway, if either of these bills pass, online poker will be legal in states that don't have a conflicting law, which means that people will be able to fund their accounts through normal methods. Um, I have to submit a written statement, uh, to the Congresspeople to read before I get there and then I'll obviously have to be prepared for hostile questions, ya know, I'm expecting, you know, the obvious ones that what about compulsive gamblers, what about underage gamblers, that'll be the obvious types of questions or the obvious types of things that we'll be asked about.

Uh, anyway, the wheels are turning in my head, I've been writing notes, uh, I guess we just have to hope that I don't get stuck at the baggage carousel. DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ABOVE IS AN UNPROOFED, INITIAL, PRELIMINARY, FIRST ROUGH DRAFT TRANSCRIPTION ATTEMPT.

http://www.pokerroad.com/_/the_bear_blog/10-25-07/


Barry,

You're the best. I am so glad that you're going to be testifying in behalf of the poker players before Congress on November 6th. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

I have the above disclaimed information in my files. I thought that you might be able to use the transcription. I did try to proof read it, but I often get stuck at the baggage carousel too. Hence, I disclaimed the proof reading also.

If you have any questions, concerns or corrections, please feel free to contact the undersigned.


Gary

[Kirbynator]

Barry is the pope of poker

[NNNNOOOOONAN]

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Barry is GOD

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[PVR]

[grdred944]

Speaker Pelosi has announced a shortened workweek for the House. This is primarily due to next year being an election year. Barry should be commended for working towards this but there will be nothing more than a subcommittee recommendation during this Congress. This trip was little more than preaching to the choir. Getting a majority to actually pass something before next November is pie-in-the-sky.