I just quoted the news piece word for word. He had a picture of an online poker site in the background.

I thought it seemed like a very unusual piece to end his intro on given all the other topics he usually covers.

Letters to the Editor

Hi team,

In response to this article it might be good to send some Letters to the Editor to your local News Limited paper.

I have written an example of a letter type below. I would suggest that you edit or amend it a little though to make it specific to you and your personal story.

The key to these things though is to be short, concise and make a point.

I would encourage pointing out that you are a tax payer (or a voter) and that this is another example of the big government nanny-state Australia has become.

If you are in Sydney or regional NSW you might want to compare to the lock out laws or greyhound racing ban.

Below the example text I have listed the Letter to the Editor link for News in the major cities. If I missed yours hopefully you should be able to find it.

Example letter

Regarding your online poker article 31/01/2017.

It is very upsetting that the government intends to ban online poker, a game that has been a big part of my life for many years.

It is not the only part of my life though. I work hard and I pay my taxes. When I come home from a hard days work I like to play poker online to relax. It has never been about the money. It is about having fun and matching my wits against other players.

This law is just another example of the big government nanny-state Australia has become.

Why can't the government focus on running the country and leave me and my hobbies alone!

Papers

Daily Telegraph - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-to-the-editor

Herald Sun - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opi...-to-the-editor

Courier Mail - http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/o...-to-the-editor

Gold Coast Bulletin - http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/...-to-the-editor

Perth Now - http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/opin...-to-the-editor

Follow Up

If anyone gets published let us all know!

Ah thanks, sorry I misunderstood. I thought that was like an intro.

Perhaps he should be up in our Twitter campaign tomorrow?

Sounds good.

Also, writing to the GC paper now as thats my local one + Courier Mail

Letters to the editor and tweets to the Sky News guy should def be tomorrow's action plan.

Here's a version of my letter if anyone wants to copy/paste part of it/modify it for their own submission

Regarding your online poker article at news.com.au 31/01/2017.

It is very upsetting that the government intends to ban online poker, a game that has been a big part of my life for many years.

It is not the only part of my life though. When I finish a hard days work I like to play poker online to relax. It has never been about the money. It is about having fun and matching my wits against other players. It is a social game of skill unlike many other forms of gambling.

This law is just another example of the big government nanny-state Australia has become. A small government party like the LNP should take steps to ensure the pending IGA legislation exempts online poker to pave the way for the industry to be properly regulated providing jobs and tax revenue as well as consumer protections.

There are far more important issues for the government to be focused on than destroying an enjoyable game of skill played by thousands of hard working Australians.

A+ Would read again!

My comment in now there.
I can only see 2 comments - Cec and Andrew (me)

The key is how does ACR ensure liquidity as that is what suffocated Fulltilt and Pokerstars before Black Friday. Their execs were charged with contravening banking laws (Wire Transfer Act) and fraud laws not gambling laws per se.

ACR uses Bitcoin for deposit/withdrawal and players use a two step bitcoin process that evades the bank forced compliance that strangled Fulltilt and Pokerstars.

ACR players link their bank accounts to a Bitcoin wallet licensed in country that explicitly refuses transactions with known illegal gambling organisations. That bank-facing bitcoin wallet is then linked to a second Bitcoin wallet that has no contact with any banks only other wallets and is therefore not subject to banking legislation. This second Bitcoin wallet is then linked to a one-off Bitcoin link generated by ACR for deposits/withdrawals. Each deposit/withdrawal uses its own unique generated Bitcoin link so the second wallet does not and cannot know it is dealing with a gambling site. There are numerous such second wallets sites and it is impractical and unenforceable to try to make the bank-facing wallets not do business with any wallet that might be dealing with a gambling site.

As a result ACR poker has a deposit/withdrawal structure immune to government strangling of liquidity. That is how ACR can do business with American customers or Australian customers moving forward.

Once deposited, your funds are held in US dollars. You are only subject to Bitcoin volatility for the half hour or so it takes to move funds between the wallets and onto ACR (unless you want to invest in Bitcoins).

FYI: My guestimate of gambling related donations to the liberal party:

Gambling Orgs Total $670,046

Associations $407,750

Business totals $262,296

• Casinos $152,306
• EGM Venue $38,040
• Online Sports Betting $71,950

Other $13,225,996

Grand Total $13,896,042

Crown normally donates about a 100K every year.

The just-finished Brains vs AI competition is a double-edged sword for the Australian poker argument. On the one hand, the AI victory strongly supports that poker is a long-term skill-based game. On the other it raises the spectre of Bots cheating players.

The following article has good summary of the issues (although with a few errors).
Inside the 20-year quest to build computers that play poker

In particular note that

Jesus, what's "other"? do you know the labor numbers and national party too?

Other is all other donations. Nothing to do with gambling in general, though there maybe organizations or people that the donations may be gambling related.

Casinos: Crown, The Star , etc.,
Online sports: tabcorp, etc
EGM Venue: Australian Hotels Association (tabcorp is a corp partner), The Registered Clubs, tatts, etc

All categories are debatable.

Just thought it was interesting, especially given that crown says that they have no position on online poker, yet they donate to the major parties and made submissions regarding prohibited gambling sites.

Website where you can get the data: http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.a...onorGroup.aspx

So some not so great news, i had a meeting with my local member today (Gai Brodtmann), we had a good discussion for about 45 minutes, provided her with a paper that had basically everything posted in this thread, the links to a bunch of the petitions and social media accounts, my own view on the situation, possible amendments to the current legislation. She was happy to take on board everything i presented and said she will consult others within her party but currently the labor party is going to support the bill as is but are open to discussing amendments to certain parts.

Good work! I actually have her on my list of people to get in touch with when I am in Canberra.

Are you able to send through the information that you gave her and an idea of what resonated most so that I can focus on the same issues?

i hand wrote it, with dot points and just had my lattop there to show links to the articles, petitions and this thread, but sure ill convert it all over to word tonight and send you a copy. As for what resonated with her the most, she definitely agreed with my line of thought to what im guessing most people will also, that this is a hobby ive enjoyed for 10 years, its my money, my free time i should be allowed to spend it how i like as long as im not breaking the law.

i did also mention i understand the other side to the argument about making sure people aren't exploited and problem gamblers are helped, to which i raised a key point. If the sole purpose of this legislation is stop problem gambling and illegal operators exploiting those people without having to be in a venue, then why not go full circle, why is it only online operators, why not target the real problem sectors when it comes to problem gambling like pokies and lotto/scratchies.

The outcome of those genres are entirely based on luck and chance, and the odds of winning over a period in time are extremely low. Why support such a wide blanket ban of online operators if you are willing to do nothing about the larger problem within venues and on Australian land? To which she basically said in no uncertain terms. Its much harder to tackle live venues than online venues.

Hi all,

I have been following your recommendations in the quite. I'd just like to hop in and say:

1) Thank you very much for your efforts.

2) I think we should avoid mentioning live gambling as much as we can during this battle. Firstly, because we want to disassociate poker from problem gambling (it really should not be categorised in that area). Secondly, because we know the lobbying that casinos and pokies have and we don't want to face that political barrier.


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Also what I've been doing is approaching via chat people marked as from Australia on the Stars tables I play in and informing them about what's going on.

It'd be nice if everyone kept an eye out for Australian players and did the same so that we can cover more players and stakes.


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If the Liberal party are on board with this bill you can bet your bottom dollar that the Labor Party will. No point blaming the Liberals well you can but Xenophon is the real person behind it all. Now he has the balance of power you are going to see more of these anti-gambling measures.

This is actually a great idea. I am not sure whether this want contravene some kind of PokerStars rule but if people could start sharing the Australian Online Poker Alliance (facebook.com/AustralianOnlinePokerAlliance) or Twitter (@AustOnlinePoker) with any Australian player that they see on the table that certainly couldn't hurt.

Great Idea. Doing this right now. The AUS players I chatted with weren't up to date with whats going on. So its a good way of getting out there

I have reviewed the rules and I think we are safe: https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/roo...eChatVoiceChat

I am actually tempted to start browsing even tables I'm not playing in and look for Australian players.




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The guy who got into the senate seven years after the act was passed? And he doesn't hold the balance of power at all, he has 3 senate seats.

If this is really about problem gambling and the wider impact it has on society why not impose deposit limits. Surely approved providers can implement mechanisms specific to Australian players.

I really think our best argument is "implement the IGA amendment when its ready. As is, all the government is doing is allowing the dodgy sites to thrive in Australia and the responsible sites to exit".

I think our "nanny state" argument doesn't work. I initially used a version of it myself but the government isn't banning us from playing, they are simply trying to make the laws line up with public expectations.

This would be very easy to do with tournaments. You can just open the tourney lobby and sort by country then open each players table. You could even color tag them after you've chatted. One down side is that you can't paste into Stars chat so you would have to write everything out every single time.

I'm already in the process of setting up a Bitcoin account. Do you think I'm wasting my time in regards to the new legislation or is this away around it. (If it comes in of course)