Folks, we may have an opportunity to greatly liberalize laws related to poker games in Pennsylvania if we act quickly. I'm professional lobbyist here in PA and there is a ton of stuff in flux right now, which makes interesting things possible. For example, a group of Republicans are now calling for the legalization of recreational pot because of the massive budget gap.

Casinos and gaming regulators have already said that large-scale poker rooms won't be returning any time soon. I'd love to move live poker games from the casinos to smaller private poker clubs, sort of like Texas. It's impossible to operate a poker room in a casino following CDC guidelines, but a poker room with 2-3 tables could take appropriate precautions.

I have some specific thoughts on strategy but I will wait to see if anyone is interested in this idea. We could put together an ad hoc committee and get things rolling pretty quickly.....We just have to move fast because the state budget deadline is June 30th and that drives a lot of the actively in the legislature.

Just sent this e-mail to the Senator Lindsay Williams, who is the chair of the PA Senate committee that regulates gambling:

Quick, notify the "Poker Players Allia" .........never mind.

OP is right, though. This would have been a good opportunity to get the word out. Many poker players have time to take action, and politicians are likely paying more attention to social media than usual to gauge public reaction to their coronavirus-related actions.

One example is all the people who took to social media with their opinions, pro and con, on the shelter-in-place orders and the various shutdowns. While media were largely supportive of long shutdowns, social media showed pretty diverse opinions on the matter. Those who thought it was okay at the beginning but should have been ended sooner than it was (and replaced with social distancing and other measures) seemed to be in the majority in a lot of places.

Poker supporters could have gotten into these discussions and, had industry made a push with decent lobbying in conjunction, we would have at least been heard.