Protesting outside the casino/hotels will do absolutely nothing except piss off a ton of tourists trying to enjoy their vacation. Let me tell you about the common people, they do not care about you and/or your current "plight" especially when it's not threatening their every day life.

Also, paying people to protest? Good luck with that. Adelson has ~35 billion dollars (give or take a few billion). Adelson can keep you common folk locked out of online poker for numerous decades (let's say 1 million for every house member. That's 535 million a year. And we're not even counting the fact that he doesn't have to rely on a good half of them to pay for their vote). Even if he pays every house member 1 million for their vote his way, even after 20 years, that's "only" 10 billion. 10 billion, for 20 years, to keep the drownings of you players. Also, since Adelson is 80ish, let's give him 20 more years to live (even though he should die today imo), If he paid that 10 billion, the rest of his life, he could set up a will to sell his assets and keep you players locked for the next 60 years.

You want to know how to get online poker back in the USA, legalized and regulated? The same way you get any real solutions. Revolution.

Good luck.

So then you don't believe people who vacation in Las Vegas care about national issues dealing with gambling. I would disagree, I think they are the perfect audience to try to reach and educate about national gambling issues.

Now if Adelson owned Disneyland and we were picketing that, then I think you'd have an argument.

Perhaps one of the picket signs could read:

"Give me liberty or give me the Venetian (death)!"

Nonetheless, I like the OP's idea. Nothing to lose at this point and all upside if anything is to come from this. Like the OP said, at the very least, even if it doesn't garner the attention we want, it will be at least be an annoyance if not worse for Adelson himself and the hotel visitors who go there as his customers, especially the ones who visit only once during the whole year. They should probably find it more than a mere annoyance (aka major pain the arse). And I am sure there are plenty of those patrons who will complain that they never expected to see such unwanted "blight" in front of their resort hotel while trying to enjoy their time at this vacation spot. What do you think Yelp and Amazon reviews are for? The people will be texting away to at least stay at some other resort.

Go walk between the sidewalk fencing of the Venetian and if you see anyone there handing out a flyer, dressed in a cartoon character outfit, break dancing with a bucket for a tips post the picture on this board. My guess is it's never going to happen. The Venetian and Palazzo agreed with city to maintain their sidewalks. The other casinos didn't agree. They are not necessarily private property which means anyone can pass in front of the casino going from point A to point B. If you set up shop on those sidewalk areas security will come out and encourage you to leave. They can do it under a number of guises. Safety reasons, harassing tourists who are trying to walk. People in cartoon outfits can't ask for tips to take their picture but they try hard to get you to give them something. As I said the porn slappers stay just outside the Venetian property. If they weren't getting hassled then explain why they stay off the property. You can't walk 5 feet on the Strip without one of those cretins sticking something in your face.

They can encourage all they want but they can't do anything to stop you unless they and the Venetian wants to get sued.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/...ls-panel-rules

Apparently no one is challenging the Venetian. I have a theory that the costumed performers and porn slappers don't even have Green Cards. Many of them are here illegally. Your better off staying off the property if you have an outstanding warrant or snuck into the US. Anywhere else on the Strip you don't have to deal with security guards or LE.

Not a lawyer, but there is a difference between a street performer and someone who is protesting about the actions of the Venetian or their owner. Pretty sure security won't hesitate holding you inside until the police arrive.

Lol, I'd love for a Venetian security officer to hold me inside for just walking on the sidewalk in front of the Venetian with a picket sign. I'd probably make more money from a lawsuit than I'd ever make playing poker.

You might have missed this from the link in post 80 which is from the website "First Amendment Center" Vanderbilt University:

I'm not a lawyer but my interpretation of what you brought in post 82 is that you can't picket on the area "inside" the sidewalk on the Venetian property or you can't intentionally block people (from your position on the sidewalk) from going from the sidewalk to the Venetian hotel entry path.

In my opinion (once again I'm not a lawyer) from what I'm reading is that there is no way they can do anything to you if you're just walking back and forth on the sidewalk with a picket sign and not trying to block anyone.

Also, It might be a good idea to call the ACLU, or the Las Vegas Culinary Union who has many years of experience in picketing Vegas hotels. I'd also have a friend with a camera phone to record everything anytime a security officer came anywhere near me or other picketers.

Would Guy Laliberte get involved?

Looks like there is an interesting history of picketing and legal issues at the Venetian. Lol, it says a security guard at the Venetian made a citizens arrest.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...messages/25499

I believe that means he acted on his own volition and not as a agent of the Venetian. In my opinion some Venetian lawyer probably came up with that strategy. Can you believe this guy Adelson.

Which might imply a permit is necessary, but not excessively difficult to obtain.

I wouldn't think you would need a permit just to hand out leaflets/flyers. Here is what a Los Angeles Times article by Matt Assad says:

"At one point, Adelson even fought to keep culinary union workers from leafleting on the public sidewalk outside the Venetian. When police and local courts told him he couldn't, he spent eight years appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court before giving up."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun...union-20120602

Just goes to show how relentless and ruthless this billionaire really is. It is about the retention of as much POWER as possible. I would venture that for a while now, money is just a pure way of how Adelson keeps score now. That is why he spends it like water for influence in Washington DC politics above and beyond all other billionaires out there.

If we are to believe the US Court of Appeals it is legal

Yeah, if you don't want to chance some legal loophole the Venetian might use, all you would have to do is picket a few feet south of the Venetian sidewalk where there is still a huge amount of pedestrian traffic of people on their way to the Venetian. The people would still know you were picketing the Venetian if the wording "Venetian" was on your sign somewhere (even though you were not technically on Venetian property).

Also there is a McDonalds right up an escalator in that area that is not on the Venetian property. You could picket a half hour, then take a break at McDonalds, then come back and picket some more.

There's another reason that out-of-towners and Vegas history buffs might enjoy:

Any picketing that would be done on the Venetian sidewalk would take place on the exact spot where the rat pack was standing in the first photo on this web page:

http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/...tra-1958-1960/

Nice, except they are sitting down.

Try this one

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/...39_634x852.jpg

I like those signs but to be more realistic get rid of the trees and put 100 tourists in the background. Maybe also put a picture of Adelson in there giving you the eye.

Also imagine 20 people with signs like those in front of the Venetian.

If you're not the picketing type then tweet; the very important RAWA Congressional hearing is in less than 2 days (on Wednesday).

http://theppa.org/fight-hr707/

It's a shame that so many poker player support sheldon adelson internet poker views by playing in his casino. Don't they care about poker? There are plenty of other rooms in Las Vegas.

I don't gamble at the Venetian or Palazzo and don't plan to because Adelson's actions, but I would think just because a poker player chooses to play at the Venetian doesn't necessarily mean they support Adelson's agenda. He/she might think they can make more money there. There's always going to be "scabs" (as picket line crossers are called) with any picketing/protest movement.

Although I support a boycott, I think a sustained picketing campaign in front of the Venetian could get more media attention. And put more pressure on the Sands Inc. stockholders, who will be concerned about the Venetian and Palazzo's image.

My concern with statements like this is they emphasize avoiding the poker room too much. Poker players play machines, they play games like craps, roulette, etc., and they spend money on food, rooms and entertainment. They don't just play poker. If all Adelson hears is "We're not playing in your room," that could encourage his actions if he holds the belief that taking out the room and adding in slot machines could make him more money.

Actually I've heard the reason many hotels have poker rooms is not because of the money the poker room makes but because many high rollers and other gamblers won't stay at a hotel that doesn't have a poker room (even though they might play craps and blackjack more than poker). They like to have that option of playing some poker if they are in the mood.

im currently in thailand and not allowed in the USA cuz i got caught with weed in canada, but im down to support this

How do i go about that? i will pay someone to picket for me

But some have the belief that those players will sometimes lose their money to poker players instead of to the casino, and as a result they frown on having poker in their casinos.

Yeah, but those players might choose not to stay at the hotel if it didn't have a poker room so the hotel loses out on the room rate plus losses at any other table games they might play besides poker.