ffs, are we really going to derail this thread with an attack toward one of the few people trying to organize the community and an offensive? There are many thousand poker players and related-industry individuals who will benefit from bringing a viable industry back to the US. Why can't the poker community be a loud voice in this fight? If nothing else, we can help educate people who know little to nothing about this industry using social media with the facts.

You don't think it will work. Fine. But don't come in here bitching about how we can't do anything about it. I think we can, and will, make a difference.

^^Best of luck. I'm just saying people who understand how the system works get that the Casino industry is going to be completely responsible for what may or may not happen. It doesn't matter how many worried Christian mothers show up to protest or how many poker players send emails. I totally get where someone like you is coming from. I'm not bitching about anything. I'm supremely confident in poker legislation being passed because there's money to be made by the Casinos and States. When it does you're going to hear a lot of bs from the PPA about how they won the fight when all they did was suck some money out of the poker community that went into the pockets of board members and people in DC. And that money going into DC is dwarfed by that of the Casino industry. So Ra Ra! I applaud you. But you don't matter. The only thing poker players need to be doing now are building bankrolls to get ready for the tsunami of fish when legislation is passed =).

Well, there won't be a tsunami of fish anytime soon if the poker community doesn't stand up for itself too. It's already taken 2 1/2 years just to get 3 states up and running. With Adelson getting involved, especially at the state level, he can muck things up and cause many more years of delay.

State representatives are more responsive and accessible to their constituents, and us contacting them can help. Most poker players are well-educated and do vote. Our voice can make a difference.

As far as I can see, the PPA has done as much as they can to advance this issue on their limited budget. I don't see them as ineffective at all. They are asked for their opinion in articles nationwide. I'm also thankful they have at least one powerful donor, PokerStars. PS is one of the most responsible sites with a great reputation, and I look forward to the day they can enter the US market again. I think my $15 is well spent.

Oh, and I do matter, along with anyone else involved in this fight.

You are obviously a shill of Adelson's trying to convince poker players to do nothing. The below movie quote applies to you.
"what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul!"

American politicians are so power/money hungry it's unreal. Many of them are quite smart.

Obviously! lol

I recommend you call less.

For the people in here who think the PPA is making a difference, please answer me one question.

Why was their number one contributor denied a license in both Nevada and New Jersey? What affective lobbying group gets a bill passed that excludes the company that funds them?

Answer: The Casinos got the bills passed and the casinos kept pokerstars from getting a license so they could have a free run at the US market. Nobody gave 2 f's what the PPA was pushing for. Politicians don't give a crap about losing the votes of poker players. They stand to lose just as many voters who are against online gambling if they pass it. And yes there are a lot of religious nut jobs and moms who oppose it. All they care about is who is going to line their pockets the most.

You don't like hearing that your voice doesn't matter. I get it. It doesn't change the fact that your voice doesn't matter. We're still a capitalist country last time I didn't check Fox News.

Ok, I get it. You don't like the PPA. If you want to start a discussion, there's a whole forum you can use. This thread isn't really the right place for it. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/57...ought-you-ppa/

In an effort to get this thread back on track, PokerXanadu offered to start a website for boycott with accurate facts and references to successful regulation. This would really be useful to direct traffic to, as well as a resource to pick up our talking points.

If anyone has web design experience and wants to help, please contact PX. Thanks!

Answer: You are entirely illogical and seemingly a bit dim. In terms of strategic thinking you don't quite make it to pre flop never mind to post river action.

1) PPA is not Stars.
2) Stars has a history of DOJ indictment and no employment and lobbying base in any state and so faced big obstacles.
3) All state based casinos have a looong history of state lobbying, if they did not they would not already exist.
4) Stars is clever enough to work out that long term getting the precedent is more important than getting the first licence, they are not Paradise Poker, Stars won the online poker market later.
5) Legal, regulated, US poker is not all about Stars, they are likely though to end up as the biggest single beneficiary of these breakthroughs.

The clincher:
You are posting in a thread about how the single biggest casino political lobbyist of all time and who is actively opposing ALL online gambling and your attack on the PPA is that the casino lobby did all the work to get.......the exact opposite of what the biggest donor and lobbyist wanted.

The Clincher part 2:
You have ignored that the PPA has made a poker carve out acceptable to some previously anti casino lobbies and helped move casinos and tribes to now look at legal regulated online gambling as beneficial to them. The pro position of some casinos is in part a product of the PPA not proof of the PPA doing nothing.

The Clincher Part 3:
The post UIGEA federal campaign has given political cover and confidence for all the state politicians now coming out as pro by showing that there is real support at a federal level and that such support is not political suicide.

So, to summarize, according to you there's zero value in organizing and in fighting back. To the contrary, it's something that angers you, as you think whatever happens happens and we poker players have no control over it.

Well, I reject that view, You're entitled to it, but it's flat-out wrong. We gain tremendously by standing up for ourselves.

what a ridiculous piece of garbage this guy is.

In for Venetian boycott.

more punctuation, less bullet points.

Fewer

I can't say this about many people but I genuinely hate this guy.

As I said in the PL thread on this, we need to point out his hypocrisy when it comes to being concerned for people's welfare.

We should encourage Adelson to spend as much money as possible on his internet gambling crusade. Hey it worked well when he spent over 100 hundred million dollars backing Newt Gingrich for President. Hopefully he spends his billions fighting a losing battle. Internet gaming is here and is not leaving now.

We should encourage him to spend as little as possible because he might just buy the right horse.

That would actually be the worst thing IMO. Many Congressmen have tough primaries coming up and will need donations for their campaigns. From a few posts up:

Stars could also profits from perhaps licensing its software to U.S. casino sites? Whichever site gets Stars/FTP software would crush the competition.

Dear Sheldon Andelson, STFU! Greedy baaaassssttttaaarrrdddd

raise...

Shneldon Andelson sucks.

It sickens me to think that I played every day at the Venetian on my last trip to Vegas. This guy looks like a ****ing ghoul. He'll never get any of my business again.

Yes. if the latest rounds of Citizen United mess gets approved by Supreme Court, the amount of money Adelson could pour into state elections all over the country is staggering. He could easily "buy" this issue in any and all states he chooses. Especially this next campaign cycle.

In most other countries this form of influence for votes is called "corruption", and people go to jail. For some reason in the United States of America we called this "lobbying" and "lobbyists" and politicians get paid lots of money to do it.

Its legalized bribery, pure and simple and until we get the money out of campaigns few things will go right for people who comprise this democracy.

@ItsCorruption twitter

/rant

Venetian/LV Sands Sr VP Andrew F. Abboud will testify in favor of a national ban on online poker & online casino-style gaming at tomorrow's hearing, with a great deal of focus specifically on online poker. Here's his written testimony: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF...A-20131210.pdf