The Bush administration has chosen to push through its incomplete Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) regulations via "lame duck" midnight rulemaking. Fortunately, no one is giving up. We have many avenues for success, and you can all be assured this is being fought at many levels. So, what can we poker players do?

Here are the four things we can all do right now:

1.) Write to President-elect Barack Obama

Barack Obama also has a new comment site, at www.change.gov. I hope every single one of will post polite, professionally worded comments on this issue to him as well. Some points to consider sharing:

• The Bush administration's last minute, incomplete UIGEA regulations are reckless in that they place unreasonable requirements on our nation’s imperiled financial services industry. Bush was reckless in forcing them on the country in his 11th hour. You should introduce legislation to overturn them.
• These UIGEA regulations set a dangerous precedent for broader censorship of the Internet by the federal government.
• The Washington Post, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...111102935.html , reported that William Wichterman, a recent lobbyist for the National Football League who now works at the White House, played a controversial role in the Bush administration's last-minute effort to implement the UIGEA regulations. His lobbying firm made $2.8 million for these efforts.
• Banks should not be forced by the federal government to act as law enforcement entities.
• Poker is a game of skill where players compete against each other. There is no “house” profiting from losing players like in casino games of chance.
• You should support licensing and regulation of online poker. Congressman Robert Wexler, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, Senator Robert Menendez, and others have sponsored bills that do just that. These bills provide protections for participants with excessive gaming habits. Bush's UIGEA regulations offer these people nothing.

2.) Write to the GOP

The GOP has a new comment site, at www.republicanforareason.com. I hope every single one of will post polite, professionally worded comments on this issue. Some points to consider sharing:

• Federal Internet censorship is not a limited government position, nor is the idea that Americans need the government to protect them from themselves.
• Banks should not be forced by the federal government to act as law enforcement entities.
• UIGEA is reckless in that it places unreasonable requirements on our nation’s imperiled financial services industry.
• Poker is a game of skill where players compete against each other. There is no “house” profiting from losing players as in casino games of chance.
• The GOP should support licensing and regulation of online poker. Bills currently in Congress provide protections for participants with excessive gaming habits. UIGEA offers these people nothing.
• The GOP has had an anti-online poker plank in its last three platforms (2000, 2004, and 2008). As a result, rightly or wrongly most Americans associate the party with UIGEA. This position likely costs the party far more votes than it gains. The GOP can no longer afford to give away votes

3.) Write to Congress

Go to the PPA autoletter site, at http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/home/. In only 60 seconds, you can tell your congressman and both of your senators exactly what you think of UIGEA.

4.) Forward this to your friends

This isn’t just about poker. It’s about Internet freedom and freedom in general. Every American should care.

thx for all your work TW. i hope it pays off.

I've got two threads over at railbirds.com, and from what I've seen, my two threads are all there is regarding this issue. It's ridiculous.

Some of the people aren't even taking it seriously.

http://www.railbirds.com/forum/gener...ine-poker.html

http://www.railbirds.com/forum/gener...poker-u-s.html

TE, I suggest adding the conflicted lobbyist issue to the Obama contact bullet points.

its over, get a real job guys.

Thanks. I added it.

very insightful and thought provoking

i quit my real job b/c poker paid me 4 times as much, guess its time to get pounded in the ass yet again by the govt.

[x] death
[x] taxes
[x] f'd by us government

5. Contact Barney Frank.

http://www.house.gov/frank/contact.html

Key word with all this is professional/polite. Proofread letters. No one wants to listen to a rant, especially a badly written one.

Last resort for pros: See you guys at the casinos.

Done. Thx for your continued efforts TE.

Any idea if we are going to get a ppa official statement on this today?

Done. Nice work Engineer. Hopefully this isn't it for US online poker. If it is, I'll be in atlantic city 6 days a week until we get it legalized.

Isn't for US online poker?

Well it's certainly not for Antarctic online poker or something, of course it's US.



...


key word I missed


isn't IT for online poker.

One more suggestion, may be obvious but maybe not. There are a lot of fresh Democrats coming into Congress next year replacing long-time Republican members. It may be worthwhile to try to contact these new members of Congress and get them on our side. We may only have a year to get this overturned, but we do have a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in both the house and senate. This next year needs to be our finest hour.