In for $50, sent. This is just a one off to boost the reach of the petition/fb page via facebook ads targeting libertarian leaning people and poker players prior to Joey having key meetings after Xmas/New Years, as he said it helps our cause a lot to have 1k+ signatures and we were at 823 as of about a half hour ago when I checked.

We should have a substantial update next week after one of Joey's meetings hopefully with good news.

Anyone active on Reddit please throw some Karma towards Joey's post (their upvote system) and make positive comments, i'll be making an account (I normally just lurk there) to do so.

Saying they are different is fine, the trouble is that whilst pokies are hated by most they are played by millions too. The response if pokies raised is how different poker is but siding against pokies is siding against most gamblers in Aus..... who you might hope to appeal to.

I know the hostility to FOBTs here in the UK and I don't like or play them but a defence of freedom and of poker means I end up defending them from the anti concensus that exists because the players have no voice.

I've also sent $50

Couple of my friends have as well, I sent some PMs to some of the aussie regs. I think Joey will update in the next day or two with the total and breakdown of what the funds will be used for and let us know what the plan is from here, I know he has some important meetings in the next week that hopefully bring us good news.

Hey guys,

Quick update.

Firstly a big thank you to all those that sent some money over to help support our campaign (I am not naming you in case you don't want to be named but if you do please let me know and I will)!

I received USD$150 which equates to 122 GBP (FB advertising currency is GBP). I have added that to the marketing campaign and am running a bit of a 'blitzkrieg' over the Christmas period.

If you would still like to contribute please do - If easiest send money to 'JosephDel' on PokerStars. If you would like to contribute in another way then get in touch via australian.online.poker.alliance@gmail

(It should go without saying but just for the sake of clarity, I am not keeping any of this money 100% of it is going towards the campaign).

The FB page (https://www.facebook.com/AustralianOnlinePokerAlliance/ for anyone who hasn't signed up yet) has >200 followers in 2 days. I have looked at the metrics from the current campaigns and have refined them to focus on the demographics we are having the most cut through in. Hopefully this will see the greatest return on our investment and help those numbers continue to grow.

The petition is just below 900 signatures so we need a little more than one hundred more people to hit the magical 1k mark! Again if you haven't signed or shared this yet please do - https://www.change.org/p/keep-online-poker-in-australia

Actually, if you haven't shared it in the past couple of days please share again!

Have held some valuable meetings over the past couple of days. We are organising a time to catch up with a Director of one of the world's largest poker companies (they are on the other side of the world). Given it is Christmas the timing is obviously a little difficult but we should have this finalised shortly.

Also I had a phone meeting yesterday with the head of the 'Australian Taxpayers Alliance' (https://www.facebook.com/AusTaxpayers/) one of Australia's most effective libertarian lobbyist groups yesterday. They are really keen to support and we are going to be doing some things together. I am currently working on some material for them to publish on their website.

We have been getting a lot of support from other Australian Poker groups. I would like to name the following who have shared and supported our cause.

- somuchpoker.com
- Pokermedia Australia
- Sydney Daytime Poker
- LCA Poker
- APW Informer

We have a lot of great people in the poker industry, let's hope we can all continue to chip in a little and end up with a big result.

Thanks all for your continued help. Please keep signing and sharing!

What other things would you guys like to see? I have been playing around a bit and looking at some options such as a t-shirts or hats people could wear during the Aussie Millions or other live poker. Is this something people would be interested in?

Swoop just made pretty clear to me how people feel about shirts. Apparently poker patches are the way to go. I will look into this instead! :-)

Patches are cheap and easy to hand out. Advertising style T-shirts are usually not ideal for people grinding long days in high buyins, so I recommended getting some 'Save Online Poker in Australia' patches or similar with smaller print for where to go to get involved. I'll bring a bunch with me to Aussie Millions and get people who are doing pokernews interviews/making final tables/getting a lot of coverage patched up assuming they're happy to (and it's in the interests of anyone who plays online poker to support our cause given that if we can't get the job done online poker will likely be banned in 2017 in aus)

Hopefully the key poker operators want to get involved and we can kick the lobbying up a notch. I still think it's key to get the LNP to adopt our proposal as policy or at least get one key MP/Senator who believes in the proposal to exempt online poker from the IGA to plead our case as the vast majority of politicians won't care either way.

Petition signed.

Great Work Swoop and Joey. I am also a member of the LNP in QLD and will see if I can raise this issue in my local branch.

Hi joey, are you on Skype? I don't have Facebook and I have a few ideas that you might be able raise
Specifically, the liberal party may not want to defer the legislation *just* for onlinepoker but if there were a few areas worth amending/thinking through we may be able to get a result .
These areas include
1) the so called "disruption" tactics that they think they can apply - that will only impact legitimate operators. In the era of Bitcoin and aggregators, this is ridiculously easy to get around (I work in banking)
2) based on the earlier post where Tudge's office doesn't think poker machines can be addressed at the national level, it doesn't feel like the liberal party have properly considered a fundamental approach to gambling (which would be a massive vote winner). Areas that could be addressed
a) cap poker machines to $1, get people to enter on their max prepared to lose.
b) Re: advertising, get rid of the ability for paid spots during tv shows
c) regulate don't ban online gambling. The so called 2.7% of problem gamblers stats is flawed but even if true, are we really going to ban something off the back of that threshold? When poker machine problem gamblers are 15%. 16% of drinkers have had at least 11 or more drinks in a session over the last 12 months, etc

d) the senate report tmentioned that they didn't consider including or excluding any games. Given the changes that have happened since the initial IGA, how can they not review the games included and excluded? How about fantasy football? Is SuperCoach legal, etc? Considering the effort that's already gone into the legislation, to implement without fully considering the whole Australian gambling issue is an opportunity missed and could end up causing the liberal/coalition political pain.

Hey pies01,

Thanks for the email. Interesting stuff and good reading. I am mindful of keeping this as simple as possible in order to get the best result.

My understanding of our position was that we were happy with the IGA as it stands, we just want an amendment clarifying that it excludes online poker.

I think the key is to have one clear agenda and just focus on that. The fear is that the more things we bring up the more muddled and confused it gets and we lose sight of the bigger picture.

This is why I have positioned it as us solely wanting online poker excluded from the IGA and for the government to open lines of communication for online poker sites to be licensed and regulated here.

In saying that this whole thing (including the AOPA) is not my thing, it is OUR thing. So if everyone has a different view I am happy to reconsider.

I just checked and an account I opened about ten years ago still exists! Not sure how I add people but please feel free to add me or give me the details I need to add you!

(This goes for anyone else who wants to get in contact)

Also we are now up to $260USD which has been donated towards our advertising campaign which is awesome.

Thanks guys.

I am thinking I will get a quote on getting some patches made up for AM and then put the rest of the funds towards advertising the site and the petition.

I am also organising a 'contact your MP' form which will allow people to send an email to their local MP from the website. so it would be good to promote that when it is ready shortly.

Let me know if there are any comments/suggestions!

Hi Joey, I agree the message to the public should be simple. The above was more about when you start talking to the MPs one at a time and giving you as much information as possible.
Either way, I think we all defer to you when it comes to the MP lobbying.

Regarding patches, i'll be at Aussie Millions and will hand them out to everyone who wants one (and encourage high visibility players to wear one) if you can get them to me by AM, or if you're going then obviously you can.

If you decide to get patches done you should post the proposed design here for feedback first or if you need one done up I know a few graphic designers but something basic along the lines of Save Australian Online Poker / AustralianOnlinePokerAlliance.com link or something seems fine

Good luck with the lobbying this week, hope it goes well.

Signed, good luck, and full credit to those organising.

Quick update.

Firstly the 'war chest' is now up to $460 USD which is great. Some good contributions have been made by members of the Australian poker community, again I wont name them unless they ask me too.

I will single out Rawkz though who has taken on the job as AOPA fundraiser. Much appreciated.

I did a quick mock up of what the patches could look like and I was going to send it through but I don't think I have written enough posts to be allowed to add attachments so I will send it to Swoop and ask him to share.

It is pretty simple and in line with my level of artistic ability, which is nil!

Also, I almost forgot to mention.

WE HIT 1K SIGNATURES YESTERDAY!!!

Thanks to everyone who signed. The AOPA FB page is also up to 400 followers so good momentum all round. I will try to get the 'Contact your MP' form organised in the next few days so hopefully we can get a few emails sent out off the back of these two places.

I'd suggest joeys idea of linking the facebook page (or a website in the future) below makes sense so have the https://www.facebook.com/AustralianOnlinePokerAlliance/ link underneath but that may be too long so I don't know

We could have a graphic designer make a fancier logo, but I don't think we necessarily need one this does seem fairly clean and you want patches to be simple. We should probably have the link though in case any patches get any TV time.

We should get a social media contact your MP/Senator campaign set up like the PPA; in the US having 1000 people spamming politicans is meaningless, but it's actually a substantial amount in Australia if we can get a proper campaign going with daily posts targeting key MPs etc

If anyone wants to design a better logo for patches feel free to post it in thread or make suggestions.

@SwoopAE and JoeyDel, kudos for the massive effort you guys are putting in.

I have a thread at PokerStrategy.com which can be viewed here and would appreciate any PokerStrategy members to cross post there as well to help keep the thread visible.

I will also post this on a local Facebook poker players page (Hobart)

Cheers and keep fighting the good fight

Laz

Thanks Laz all efforts to help are appreciated. Haven't spoken to Joey yet today but we were sourcing some quotes to get patches made up for visibility during Aussie Mills.

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a good New Years

Quick Update

1) Patches - this has hit a bit of a snag. I spoke to a few different people. The ones that could get us them in time cost way too much and the cheap ones were no guarantee of being here until after Aussie Millions (if they ever arrived at all). I had a chat with Swoop and I am currently leaning to putting that money into advertising instead (see below) and just trying to organise some media during AM for us through Jason Sommerville and Pokernews. If anyone has any other thoughts please let me know

2) Online Content - I have written an article as well as a 'Contact Your MP' letter which are currently being vetted. Once these are finalised I am hoping to have them posted on the 'Australian Tax Payers Alliance' page as well as the 'My Choice' page which are both lobbyist groups against big government (i.e banning things). Once this Contact your MP letter is up I think this would be a wise place to focus our advertising budget.

We have also had some good numbers on our petition and our FB page) - We have over 1100 signatures on the petition and we have over 600 following the page which I think is a great start. These will help add credibility to our cause when speaking with people not from our industry.

3) Contact plan - Tomorrow marks the first day of the year work wise so I will begin trying to book in meetings. I have a list of about 50 people that I want to focus on which includes politicians, journalists and a couple of celebrities.

I will be trying to book in meetings in Canberra during the first sitting period of the year and will keep you guys posted.

HOW YOU CAN HELP - At the moment just keep liking and sharing the petition and FB page please. When we get the Contact Your MP form made please fill it out and get as many people (who are on the electoral roll) to do the same,

Thanks!

Great work Joey.

Re: patches we were struggling to find reasonable ones for less than $4.60/patch which seems like it may be a poor use of funds. Will be doing my best to promote our cause during AM regardless.

SwoopAE - pls send me the artwork and spec for the patches.

also advise if you'd be cool with pin-on badges rather than sew-on patches.

not 100% sure what you're looking to produce, but my company specializes in print. we may be able to assist in the timeframe.

Thanks oldsilver!

It is basically the artwork a few posts up.

Edit: Actually seems to have disappeared from the post. I think Swoop is playing an event at AM today. If you don't here from him, send an email to Australian.online.poker.alliance@gmail.com and I will send to you.