Quote:
Originally Posted by Josem
I believe that Rich Muny and John Pappas have behaved with great integrity and sustained effort to do what is right for the poker players that they strove to represent. Thank you for your service.
It is a shame that a man like Cary Katz has taken over the successor organisation. Traditionally, paying your debts was an essential part of being an accepted member of this community.
Formerly, poker industry leaders supported the PPA because they recognised that what was good for players was good for business (and the right thing to do!). They recognised that if they were poker, they needed to provide a voice for players. Today, however, the short-sightedness of the leading gambling corporations in letting the PPA fall into the clutches of someone like Katz is really sad here.
PokerStars and FullTilt bought the PPA in order to lobby for a "Federal Solution" to give themselves a licensing monopoly in the US market. They did so because folks like Al DAmato and other DC-centric lobbyists sold them a story that, if they paid those lobbyists millions of dollars, there would be Federal legislation.
Consequently, "poker industry leaders" wasted several years and millions of dollars paid to DC-Inside the Beltway types .... and nothing ever happened federally to pass legislation.
I have no beef with Rich or John, and appreciated their hard work on defense, but the Sisyphean task selected for them was
NEVER going to pass poker licensing legislation at the Federal level.
I find it refreshingly candid that the term "Players" was dropped from the title of an industry lobbying arm.
Good luck to the Poker Alliance and its efforts.