Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Plan for week of 4/9

[TheEngineer]

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 this week. Unfortunately, we're not now even close to having the minimum number of people we need to have synergy in numbers. If only a few people participate, we won't really be a group; rather, we're just a few individuals. So, we need everyone's time and effort. Please give it a try this week. You'll be glad you did.

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>

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!


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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

[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

----------------------------------------------

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

---------------------------------------------

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

[TheEngineer]

Some discussion points:

- America is a free country. We should be as free to play poker at home as British, Russians, and Eastern Europeans are. Moralists shouldn't be able to force their ideas of morality on others through force of law in a free country.

- 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.

- 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.

- Compliance with the latest WTO ruling

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the subcommittee Republicans (my letter to the full committee is virtually identical):

April 8, 2007

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Minority (Republicans)
Rayburn House Office Building B-301C
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representatives:

I'm writing to ask you to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is big government nanny-statism at its worst. I believe the outrage of my fellow poker players contributed strongly to the Democratic win in the last election. It's not just me; many Republican core supporters do not support the big government nanny state. That's why the Contract with America was so enthusiastically received by the Republican rank-and-file. In the interests of freedom and bipartisanship, I ask the committee to support Chairman Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation.

The impact of UIGEA includes the following:

· This law forces American banks to function as the moral police of America. It shifts the costs and other burdens of enforcement to them as well.

· As a result of this law, Americans are now less free than even Russians and Eastern Europeans.

· The Department of Justice has elected to act outside the scope of existing federal law. The recent heavy-handed DOJ arrests of the founders of Neteller and the seizure of pending EFT transfers from Neteller to American citizen are outrages. It seems the DOJ has a vendetta against U.S. online gamblers who broke no federal laws by playing. In other words, although they are part of the executive branch, they’ve elected to create their own laws – laws that have not been introduced through your subcommittee or approved by Congress.

· The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce age limits while establishing procedures for money-laundering monitoring.

· The U.S. should comply with the recent WTO ruling that concluded that our restrictions on Internet gambling constitute an unfair restraint of trade.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TE

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the subcommittee Democrats (my letter to the full committee is virtually identical):

April 8, 2007

House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Majority (Democrats)
Rayburn House Office Building 2129D
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representatives:

I'm writing to ask you to restore the right of Americans to play Internet poker and other casino games in the privacy of their own homes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is big government nanny-statism at its worst. I believe the outrage of my fellow poker players contributed strongly to the Democratic win in the last election, and I believe the Democratic Party has a historic opportunity to win the support of millions of freedom-loving individuals across the country by supporting Chairman Barney Frank’s upcoming Internet gambling legislation. I urge the subcommittee to support this legislation.

The impact of UIGEA includes the following:

· This law forces American banks to function as the moral police of America. It shifts the costs and other burdens of enforcement to them as well.

· As a result of this law, Americans are now less free than even Russians and Eastern Europeans.

· The Department of Justice has elected to act outside the scope of existing federal law. The recent heavy-handed DOJ arrests of the founders of Neteller and the seizure of pending EFT transfers from Neteller to American citizen are outrages. It seems the DOJ has a vendetta against U.S. online gamblers who broke no federal laws by playing. In other words, although they are part of the executive branch, they’ve elected to create their own laws – laws that have not been introduced through your subcommittee or approved by Congress.

· The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions should desire a regulated market. That way, the U.S. can set and enforce age limits while establishing procedures for money-laundering monitoring.

· The U.S. should comply with the recent WTO ruling that concluded that our restrictions on Internet gambling constitute an unfair restraint of trade.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TE

[TheEngineer]

bump.....

Anyone interested in this?

[Artsemis]

I confess I haven't been following your series of threads TE, but from the looks of it they are very underrated here by others as well.

These posts are great for letting people know not just what has been happening recently but how they can take a few minutes and do their part... if everyone does a little it can achieve a lot and I, for one, will be following these threads much more closely.

Thanks for these, TheEngineer.

[morgant]

i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[Emperor]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Signed

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. this is a very active thing you are doing here. i am going to pay attention to these threads and start doing my part to make our voices heard. i may contact you about using some of your material to disseminate this information to my databases of players.

thanks for doing this, wanted to let you know its appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks...I appreciate that.

Feel free to use whatever I post in any manner that helps our cause.

TE