Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/5

[TheEngineer]

Would you like to fight for your rights to play poker online? If so, please see my thread on the Legislation board about this week's plan to fight for the repeal of the UIGEA at Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/5. Thanks.

P.S. Let's keep all the discussion on the main thread in Legislation.

Mods: I'd like to be able to keep this on the front page until Monday, if possible. Will you either sticky it or leave it unlocked until then so I can bump it a couple of times? Thanks.

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Over at BJ21.com and here, we got tired of having our rights trampled on, so we decided to do what we can to fight back. We plan to do something every week until we win the repeal of UIGEA. I hope everyone here will join in to help with the fight. Here's our plan for the week of 3/5:

Let's focus on members of the House Financial Services Committee. The committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), is a good friend to our cause. We should ensure he receives plenty of support from us to use as ammo in his fights on Capitol Hill. Additionally, let's target Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chairwoman of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee (responsibilities of this subcommittee includes banks) of the House Financial Services Committee. Maloney voted in favor of HR 4411 (the precursor of UIGEA), so we have an opportunity to give her sufficient facts to change her mind.

Actions:
- (snail) mail Barney Frank and Carolyn Maloney one letter each
- call Frank and Maloney twice
- email Frank and Maloney daily from 3/5 though 3/11
- if feeling ambitious, select members of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee closest to your home address to contact.

Some discussion points:

- This bill forces U.S. banks to act as the moral police of America; it shifts the costs to them as well.

- Stockholders in banks should complain about being forced to foot the bill for this.

- The issue with Neteller holding Americans' money in limbo.

- American companies are at risk of being completely shut out of the Internet gaming market. Existing Internet companies have already developed business models that don't rely on American players. America is losing a lot of potential revenue.

- The U.S. should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce the age limits. Also, money-laundering issues can be monitored.

- WTO compliance

Don't throw out your letters....we're going to focus on this subcommittee for the next three weeks (unless the WTO rules against the U.S. in the trade dispute during that time...if that occurs we'll likely respond to that by targeting members of the House Subcommittee on Trade), and we'll be able to reuse most of our words. I don't want us to work any harder than we have to. Our goal is to maximize our effectiveness.

Thanks to everyone who participates. I'm looking forward to fighting for our rights. Please reply to this thread if you participate. Thanks!

[kidpokeher]

Frank is supposed to appear on an upcoming episode of Real Time with Bill Maher but I didn't see exactly when. Maybe there's a way to get the issue brought up during the show?

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Frank is supposed to appear on an upcoming episode of Real Time with Bill Maher but I didn't see exactly when. Maybe there's a way to get the issue brought up during the show?

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. We should ask him. He sounds quite passionate about it.

Can you copy your post to the thread in the Legislative forum? I think we'll be very interested in that idea, as we don't only want to write letters. We want to be heard in the media as well.

[kidpokeher]

Did a little more searching. Looks like the show aired last night according to this link so I guess we missed the boat. http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/home/