Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread

[oldbookguy]

A quick note to all, today is day 2 of calling / writing Obama's office asking for support and a public statement for Internet Poker.

obg

[Uglyowl]

[ QUOTE ]
A quick note to all, today is day 2 of calling / writing Obama's office asking for support and a public statement for Internet Poker.

obg

[/ QUOTE ]

E-mail sent on website, I will try to call during lunch today.

[TheEngineer]

What do you all want to do? I can think of two things. One is to write rebuttals to the FoF letter to Congress and send them to Congress plus everyone involved in the UIGEA regs. We could get a lot of "bang for the buck", as one letter could go to ten people. The other item is to write to your representative, enclosing a copy of our voter guide, asking for comments and commitments. I personally like the first option, but what do you all think?

www.citizenlink.org/pdfs/fosi/gambling/08-02-07_Internet_Gamb_GroupSign_Letter_8-1-07_Final_FAX_to_HOUSE.pdf

[oldbookguy]

At the least we need to respond in kind with letters to both houses of congress.

Looking at the FoF:

We should begin....ROUGH DRAFT IN A BIT OF RAGE, suggestions?

Has not been ran through MS Word for corrects.

Dear XXXXXXX,
First and foremost, this letter is from a VOTING American in your district and state, I am NOT a foreigner from overseas lobbying you.

As an American Citizen who in no way portends to represent million of others, although there are many millions like myself, I am compelled to voice my indignity that any group would stoop to a level hyperbole by stressing that 230 million people access the Internet and many are children as reasoning to encourage continued invasion into MY HOME.

I am outraged that a CHRISTIAN group would even suggest that our great country negotiate out of a commitment we made sullying our word to the WTO and the world.

Why would ANY Christian encourage any one or any nation to simply say, I will pay you money for allowing me to lie to you?

Why would any Christian that portends to care about his fellow man and country encourage its government to negotiate trade sanctions that potentially can cost many American jobs by allowing unfair trade.

Why would any Christian that portends to care about his fellow man and country encourage its government to negotiate trade sanctions that will certainly cost American companies to suffer reduced profits or his fellow man to pay higher prices?

Why would ANY ONE wish to enter my home via Federal Legislation and dictate to me how I may or may not morally spend my recreational time?

I consider myself a Christian, and having read the letter authored by Focus On The Family and others you received, more so than they.

I respect their views however, I have no respect for anyone or group who disparages others or seeks dominion over others on earth in the name of God or religion.

I live in America.

In closing I beseech you to not make the words sung by Joan Baez ring true, FREEDOM IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE........


obg

[TheRedRocket]

[ QUOTE ]
Why would ANY ONE wish to enter my home via Federal Legislation and dictate to me how I may or may not morally spend my recreational time?

[/ QUOTE ]

instead of this how about language that instead says that the FOFs should be concerning itself with educating its members about the dangers of irresponsible gambling, and looking for ways to see that sites continue to install responsible gaming mechanisms instead of taking away your freedom to engage in the enjoyment of responsible poker playing from your home.

I just dont think the privacy of my own home stuff gets anywhere with lawmakers, as its basically what they do

[TheEngineer]

Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for weeks of 8/6 & 8/13

<font color="brown"><u>Actions:</u>
- Write to Congress (your senators and your rep) with a rebuttal to one of the 8/1 FoF letters.
- Write to Congress (your senators and your rep) to ask for their support and to ask where they stand on Internet gaming. Reference the Congressmen For and Against Online Gambling article in the letter.

Ongoing advocacy:
1. Write to Treasury and DOJ officials AT LEAST ONCE PER WEEK to request the minimum possible UIGEA regulations.
2. Regularly contact Congress.
3. Contact your governor and to your state representatives.
4. Write to newspapers and post to blogs. </font>

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- Let’s all write to Congress (senators and rep) with a rebuttal to one of the 8/1 FoF letters, at FoF Letter and Sports Coalition Letter. Let’s be careful to not give these letters credit with our response. Rather, let’s take the tone of “you believe this joke of a letter?”, so to speak. We don’t want to inadvertently elevate or promote either FoF letter, but we don't want it to unchallenged, eihter.

- Let’s all write and call Congress (senators and rep) to ask for their support and for their stand on Internet gaming. Reference the Congressmen For and Against Online Gambling article in the letter. Consider stating that you’ll vote based on the letter and inform them that you hope their rating improves by Election Day. This will help the congressmen see tangible evidence of our work, and it will show the senators what to expect. For many representatives, Googling “[their name] gambling” returns this article at #1, so that may be worth mentioning. Once done, please let me know if you receive a response, so I can update the report accordingly. I hope we can get rid of most of the question marks.


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Ongoing efforts:

1. Write to Treasury and DOJ officials AT LEAST ONCE PER WEEK to request the minimum possible UIGEA regulations. We should contact Steven D. Laughton (the UIGEA Treasury Dept. focal point), Roberta McInerney (Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance), Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. The regs were supposed to be out by now...the fact they they are not is probably good for us. I think a big push here on our part could really pay off.

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 gaming. Finally, there should be no "site blacklists".

Contact info:

Steven D. Laughton
Office of the Assistant General Counsel (Banking and Finance)
Room 2027B,1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington,DC 20220
Phone: (202) 622-8413
Email: steven.laughton@do.treas.gov

Ms. Roberta K. McInerney
Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance
Room 2304
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20220

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

Others:

Pres. Bush: comments@whitehouse.gov
Your senators: www.senate.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
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm

2. 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, FoF, 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
- Hypocrisy of existing legal online gaming (games of skill, horseracing, etc)
- 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

3. Contact your governor and state representative. Congress won't pass anything that forces states to legalize gambling, so we ought to get the ball rolling at that level.


4. Now that we have bills progressing, 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

Thanks everyone!

[TheEngineer]

August 3, 2007

The Honorable Geoff Davis
United States House of Representatives
1108 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1704

Dear Congressman Davis:

I am writing to ask you to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other games in the privacy of their own homes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is big government nanny-statism at its worst. Why should the federal government care how I spend my own money in my own home? I fail to see how this could possibly be of any concern to Congress and, quite frankly, I am angry that Congress thinks it is their concern.

Out of love for freedom, and out of anger, immediately after UIGEA passed I started advocating for its repeal on various web sites. Posting as “TheEngineer”, many of my fellow Internet poker enthusiasts and I have made some progress toward our ultimate goal. One step I took was to develop and post a voting guide for poker players and others who value freedom. Besides assigning a grade to every congressman, it identifies twelve L-rated congressmen (most vulnerable opponents…i.e., most likely to be “Leached”, as in Jim Leach) for special focus. I posted the guide at several sites that are frequented by thousands of poker players, including www.eog.com/news/industry.aspx?id=28374 , http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=1#Post11456661 and http://webringamerica.com/4/pokerpla...pic.php?t=1618 . It seems to be popular. In fact, Googling “Geoff Davis gambling” returns my guide at positions #1, #5, #9, and #10.

I plan to expand this as much as possible over the next year. As the Poker Players Alliance, a grassroots poker rights organization chaired by Sen. Al D’Amato, now has over 600,000 members, I foresee a lot of attention being paid to this issue in the next election. I know my friends, family, and I will vote along these lines.

I am updating my guide monthly. Will you provide me with some information? I would simply like to know if you support HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007. As you know, IGREA provides for regulated, taxed, and legal Internet poker. It provides for age verification and other issues, as you heard at the June 8 House Financial Services Committee hearing on the subject.

This is not about supporting or not supporting poker; rather, it is about supporting the right of adults to make their own decisions and to live in freedom. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TheEngineer

[fnurt]

[ QUOTE ]
I got a form email yesterday (I assume I'm not the only one) over the name of Greg Raymer, urging me to call my Congresswoman and ask her to cosponsor H.R. 2046. In terms of a call for action, by the way, this email was very well done, including both her name and phone number since many people won't take the trouble to look up who their Congressman is.

I called the office of my Rep (Carolyn Maloney, NY-14) and asked her to cosponsor the bill. The intern said that she didn't believe the Congresswoman had stated a position on the bill yet but that she had been getting "a lot of calls" on that particular bill, so let's hear it for the good guys!

A big chunk of the New York delegation has already cosponsored the bill (even Republicans!) so I imagine that with a few more calls from constituents, she's likely to join in as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I called Rep. Maloney today as a follow-up. They said she still hadn't taken a position, so I repeated my arguments and mentioned that the supporters of this issue are publishing voter guides and that she'll get a lot of support if she decides to co-sponsor the bill. Gotta keep the pressure on!

[TheEngineer]

Word is that FoF is pressing hard with their letters and other advocacy of Congress. Let's all get a quick letter out. It doesn't have to be the perfect rebuttal. I simple "it's none of their business, or yours, what I do in my own home with my own money" will do, but it's more important to get the short note out now than to wait to write the "perfect" rebuttal. Thanks.

[TheEngineer]

August 10, 2007

The Honorable Geoff Davis
United States House of Representatives
1108 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1704

Dear Congressman Davis:

As a constituent and voter in your district, I am writing in response to the August 1st Focus on the Family letter to Congress concerning Internet gaming. I urge you to disregard their recommendations concerning Internet gaming, as these nanny-statish ideas are bad for America and potentially disastrous for the Republican Party.

The idea that Americans need the federal government to protect us from ourselves is laughable. What I do in my own home is not the business of Focus on the Family. I could not help but note that FoF and other freedom-restrictors fail to mention that every wager ever made online was made voluntarily. Internet poker sites are not predatory…people play poker because they enjoy it. We’re not degenerates as Focus would have you believe; rather, we enjoy matching wits in contests of skill.

HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, addresses EVERY concern mentioned by Focus on the Family. It seems FoF should praise HR 2046 for having systems in place to address Focus’ list of so-called “problems” [age verification, regulated sites, self-exclusion lists, funding for treatment for the 0.6% (according to a recent Harvard study) of players who develop issues, and state and sports league opt-outs], especially as the testimony at the June 8 House Financial Services Committee hearing on this conclusively proved that Internet gaming can be regulated effectively. I write “so-called” because it is obvious that Focus would oppose Internet gaming even if there were no negatives, as Focus is simply opposed to all gambling…even games of skill like poker. They are entitled to their opinion, but they should just say that, instead of pretending that their concerns are rooted in the “problems” listed in their letter.

Regarding their specific recommendations, I ask that you help ensure that the UIGEA regulations do not exceed the specific requirements of the Act. As you know, UIGEA did 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 are fond of saying this. However, they neglect to mention that very few types of online gambling are illegal under federal law. Specifically, federal law covers only some sports 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 and citizens, 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. 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. I also ask that you not support the U.S. withdrawal from the gaming sectors of the WTO. Kentucky needs an effective WTO, not one that will be stripped of effectiveness, even after penalizing us billions of dollars for stopping Americans from choosing to spend their own money while in their own homes.

Finally, the 2008 elections are shaping up to be a real bloodbath for our party, especially as it looks like Steve Beshear will end 2007 by trouncing Gov. Fletcher – while running on a pro-gaming platform. This, plus the overall mood of the nation, will make running for reelection on a nanny-state platform political suicide. You may win in 2008, but it is hard to see our party controlling anything any day soon.

Thank you for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

[my name]