As you may have noted from my previous emails about the UIGEA, I’ve been looking for the Poker Player’s Alliance to move things to the next level with this new Congress. Michael Bolcerek, president of the PPA, and I have chatted a few times in the past so I thought now would be a good time to share some thoughts with him. We spent about an hour on the phone the other night discussing what’s happened, what the PPA has done, and what the PPA is planning on doing. Obviously, parts of what we discussed are not public knowledge yet but I did want to discuss one of the PPA’s newest initiatives.
Interestingly, I had run across the PPA’s new website completely though random surfing the very morning before we spoke. When he mentioned it on the phone I dug a little bit to find out more about it.
The PPA’s newest initiative is Fight What’s Next. It aims at an audience a little wider than just poker players because everyone who enjoys a bit of online gaming was impacted by the passing of the UIGEA. The initial idea is fairly simple; get as many letters as possible and hand deliver them to the incoming Congress. When you choose to send a letter, you can pick from some templates and/or customize them to express your particular thoughts. A copy of your letter will be delivered to your US House representative and both of your US Senators. If all 125,000 current PPA members use the service that’s 375,000 letters being delivered to lawmakers.
But here’s the sweet little bonus; if you fill out the form and send your letter you’ll be offered an opportunity to join the PPA for free. While I would still encourage everyone to pony up the $20, this is a great opportunity for you cheap bastards out there to throw your support behind legalized online poker without having to reach into your wallet. Right now the PPA is sort of at a critical juncture. It’s on the verge of having enough critical mass to actually be a force but they need members and they need your support. The folks who pushed to pass the UIGEA were catering to a group that only has about 2 million members. If the PPA could claim 500,000 – 1 million members that gives them important political clout that could be used to get a carve out for poker or even a complete repeal of the UIGEA.
So here’s what you can do:
- Go to the Fight What’s Next website and send a letter to your elected representatives.
- Pay $20 and join the PPA. If you’re too damn cheap to pull a $20 out of your pocket, go ahead and sign up for free.
- If you have a website/blog, post something on there letting people know about this new PPA initiative.
- If you don’t have a website, tell every poker player you know via email, in person, etc.
It’s that simple.
The PPA has some great stuff coming up in regards to trying to get a carve out for poker so keep checking the PPA website for updates and details.
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Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
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