Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread

[TheEngineer]

Welcome to the master weekly action thread. Are you still tired of having your rights trampled on by grandstanding politicians? I am. Guys, we've had some successes since UIGEA passed, including the following:

- Frist is gone, as is Leach
- Barney Frank (D-MA, Chairman of the Financial Services Committee) has publicly taken our side. He'll introduce legislation around 4/18 in favor of online gaming. I think our support may have helped this, at least a little.
- Ron Paul (R-TX) sent several of us emails (even those of us not in his district) specifically stating he'll support Barney Frank's efforts. Coincidentally, that's EXACTLY what we asked him for in one of our weekly action items.
- Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Jon Porter (R-NV) have proposed legislation to study legalized and regulated online gambling. Again, one of our action items hit the mark. While they likely would have done this anyway, our support gave them some additional ammo to proceed forward.
- The WTO ruled in favor of Antigua over the U.S. in the issue of the U.S. banning online gaming.
- Banks are bitching about being the UIGEA's enforcers.
- Al D'Amato joined PPA (great news overall, I think...folks concerned about the focus of PPA should join for free and tell PPA that they wish PPA to fight for all online gaming).

Seems this is the time to fight. After all, the UIGEA-driven regs haven't been put in place yet, stuff is moving in our favor, and we're being heard. Given all this, I'd like to ask everyone here to participate each week. Thanks.

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Prior Action Plan threads:

Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 2/26
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/5
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/12
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/19
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 3/26
Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 4/2
Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 4/9 & 4/16

[TheEngineer]

Barney Frank says he needs to hear more from us ( Barney Frank article), so let's continue last week's action plan.

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As Barney Frank will be submitting legislation in the next two weeks to the House Financial Services Committee, let's focus there this week. Even if you've written to these folks some time ago, please do so again, this time simply requesting that they cosponsor Frank's legislation. We asked Ron Paul specifically for that and he responded affirmatively. Let's get more congressmen to do the same.

<font color="brown">Primary Action:
- contact the majority and minority offices of the House Financial Services Committee and the Financial Institutions Subcommittee (one phone call AND one snail mail letter...see the next post for contact info).
- send thank-you letters to Barney Frank and Ron Paul for their support. They're going out on a limb not for constituents, lobbyists, or donors, but solely because they believe in freedom....our freedom. They get nothing at all except for our gratitude. Let's give it to them. The letters will go a long way in showing that Americans want this repealed.
- if you haven't yet, contact your representative and ask him/her to cosponsor Frank's repeal efforts

The letters don't have to be fancy. All they have to do is ask the members to support Frank's legislation. This is easy.

Additional Actions:
- ask your poker site to contribute to PPA like FullTilt recently did.
- write a short letter to your local newspaper about your desire for the U.S. to give us freedoms others, including even Russians and Eastern Europeans, take for granted.
- if feeling ambitious, print out letters for your friends to sign and mail</font>

Please see Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 4/9 &amp; 4/16 for contact info.

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

[Sniper]

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

[TheEngineer]

Reply from my congressman:

April 9, 2007

Thank you for your continued correspondence about legislation related to Internet gambling that passed in the 109th Congress. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you know, H.R. 4411, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act signed into law as part of a larger bill package on October 13, 2006. The internet gambling provisions will prevent the use of credit cards and fund transfers for unlawful internet gambling and block financial transactions associated with illegal gambling.

While many Americans have the misimpression that internet gambling is legal because of the easy access to online casinos based offshore, it is not. The new provisions do not change the law, but rather provide new enforcement tools to help law enforcement and financial services companies crack down on this already illegal activity, This legislation received endorsements from the religious community, family groups, financial services groups and all the major professional sports organizations.

American dollars account for half of the $12 billion bet worldwide on the internet. FBI and Justice Department experts have warned that internet gambling websites are vulnerable to being used for money, laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing, As a member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, my colleagues and I have taken a particular interest in this issue. I have serious concerns about terrorist financing and the possibility of terrorists laundering money through unregulated, offshore online casinos.

House Financial services Chairman Barney Frank [MA-04] has expressed an interest in reprieving this issue. As a member of the Committee, I will take your support for a repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into consideration should the issue come up again.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on internet gambling. Also, you can sign up for the _____ District’s E-Mail Newsletter by visiting my website at http://__________.house.gov/emailsignup.aspx.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx

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My reply:

April 13, 2007
The Honorable **** ****
United States House of Representatives
**** **** House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman ****:

I thank you for your April 9th letter where you responded to my request that you work to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes by cosponsoring Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation. I’d like to share with you my humble opinion on the matter.

By way of introduction, I’m an engineer with one of the area’s larger employers. After a long day at work, I enjoy playing a little poker on occasion, and I prefer playing in the comfort of my own home with my wife at my side to playing in a smoky casino in [the neighboring state]. I happen to be skilled enough at the game to win significantly more than I lose, but that’s not really the point. Poker is an enjoyable game of skill, much as golfing or fishing. In fact, poker is one of the great American pastimes. Presidents, generals, Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress and average Americans have enjoyed the game for more than 150 years. It’s an honorable game.

As a conservative Republican, I share some of your concerns about online gambling. However, it’s not obvious that federal laws restricting our freedoms and liberties will solve these issues. After all, online gambling will continue internationally. In fact, the WTO has recently ruled the U.S. violated international trade law by prosecuting online gambling cases. As such, I urge you to support legalization with regulation. A regulated Internet gambling environment will facilitate age verification and collection of federal and state taxes. It will also reduce any potential vulnerability of gambling websites to being used for money laundering, drug trafficking, or terrorist financing. With regulation, potential problems can be controlled without taking freedoms from Americans. After all, Russians and Eastern Europeans can gamble online; it seems the U.S. should trust its citizens at least as much as Russia trusts theirs, right?

You mentioned the endorsements H.R. 4411 received from the religious community, family groups, financial services groups and all major professional sports organizations. I hope you’ll consider the fact that these groups do not necessarily represent the majority of voters in our district (or even the majority of Republicans in our district). As for religious and family groups, there is no prohibition against gambling in the Bible. As a Christian, I personally find it offensive that so many so-called religious folks are willing to give away our freedoms, especially in pursuit of a goal not even defined in the Bible. As for financial services groups, some credit card issuers may like UIGEA (due only to the risk of losing players refusing to pay up), but I don’t believe banks wish to be the enforcers of UIGEA. As a result, I think you’ll find financial services groups to be net losers as a result of UIGEA. Finally, I believe the concerns of the major professional sports organizations relate only to sports betting. A regulated online gaming environment can address that concern.

Online gaming will continue to exist with or without the participation of the United States. We’re losing our opportunity to control the games via regulation as well as the opportunities for U.S. companies to operate the games both domestically and internationally. This is costing America jobs and tax revenue.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TheEngineer

[TheEngineer]

Please post below once you've contacted (phone or letter) either the House Financial Services Committee or the Financial Institutions Subcommittee (either Majority or Minority). Thanks.

I think we need eighty of us here (plus 20 at BJ21.com) particpating to claim the synergy of a group effort. Fewer than that and there's probably little reason to try to coordinate our efforts. We can drop to biweekly if that would help. Many here have posted with support, so I think we may be close.

Anyway, let's stick to this action plan until there are eighty affirmative replies to this post. Thanks for your support.

[TheEngineer]

bump....who's in?

[va1halla]

Nice letter, keep up the good work.
Hope you don't mind if I use it.

[Moneyline]

[ QUOTE ]
Primary Action:
- contact the majority and minority offices of the House Financial Services Committee and the Financial Institutions Subcommittee

[/ QUOTE ]

Who are these Congressmen?

Also, how does one get in contact with Congressman Frank's office. I went to his website to send him an email, but it only provides a means for people who live in his district to contact him.

[Zele]

Called Frank and Gutierrez.

Moneyline, call instead. They seldom ask where you are from.

[TheEngineer]

Contact Info:

House Committee on Financial Services
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4247

Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-371A
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-7502

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House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129D
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4247 (same as parent committee)

Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-301C
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-2258

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Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5931


Congressman Ron Paul
203 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone Number: (202) 225-2831