Create a video with a poker union idea, begin to pool resources and contact local senators and congress people, telling them the tax benefits and how poker is already legal, no difference if its online vs IRL.

I've personally been responsible for pokerstars adding 3 niche tournies to their sched because I told 10-20 other regs to email them, we did en masse and they added them. People respond to demand AND this demand only benefits everyone;

Again poker is ALREADY legal
More tax money is a bad thing how?
What happened in the past has nothing to do with the sites of today

Honestly its just about effort/execution, I was watching Hikaru Nakamura (one of the best chess players in the world) and he had an awesome idea to start a YT channel where the top pros go over their games and get ad revenue from it (he already has 10s of millions himself), its just about doing it, people just put off put off put off, even simple awesome ideas.

I literally asked DNegs to approach Trump about legalizing poker when he was in office.

DNegs laughed at the idea........ he either thought Trump was too far away, or Daniel was so left that he'd never be associated with Trump.

Fact is, Trump could have done it. Probably wouldn't have at first since Sheldon was a GOP donor, but Trump never liked the guy....now that he's gone though........

If Trump gets back in or even DeSantis, the likes of DNegs, Hellmuth, Ivey, etc as a collective with their star power could help influence legalization.

Considering DNeg became a US citizen specifically to vote against Trump, I doubt he was asking him anything other than to resign.

OH yeah, there's no doubt DNegs has TDS.......but isn't poker legalization more important than whether he likes the man or not? A good man can set differences aside for the greater good......but maybe he's called kid poker for a reason.

Not gonna lie... when I saw this comment on IG, I immediately thought of this thread. Clearly similar ideas as to how our legal and legislative system works.

Wait, if this is true, then why do you need Doug Polk and Phil Ivey to do it? Clearly you and your 10-20 other regs have the necessary influence.

Definitely, you and the poker community will get behind me and support me right?

Getting tournaments added to a poker site=legalizing poker, same thing! totally.....

Poker players would unironically rather go to jail than attempt to do anything in regards to legalization

No

Just to make sure everyone is aware, a handful of states have already legalized online poker, and PokerStars, WSOP, MGM, and other providers are already operational in the US. As the legality of sports and casino gaming spread, so will poker.

Nah man they don't work they just start trafficking people.

While watching the livestream from The Lodge this past weekend, Polk was talking about his recent visit to New England. He said he played at Mohegan and Foxwoods. He aslo said he got the feeling that "poker was dying in New England "

Doesn't sound like like someone who's considering expanding poker in this area.

Crazy considering more degenerate forms of gambling where the person have no chances of winning are getting more popular, but c'est la vie, if top pros don't want to do ****, thats life.

In all honesty, yes. If you got some kind of constructive movement going, I would support the hell out of it. Note that this is substantially different than saying "why isn't Doug Polk or Phil Ivey doing anything?"

In fact, if you were to get something moving, and demonstrated that whatever you do has some viability, sustainability and a likelihood to effect change, then you might eventually entice some top players to get involved. Take a look at the PPA. Now, I don't want to start an entire discussion over how much they did or didn't accomplish, but it illustrates an example of how high-profile players can and will jump on board and contribute significant support... once the ball gets rolling.

I know you probably think I've been trolling you, and I admit there is an extent to which I have. But that comes about because I didn't grant your premise: the best players with the "money, contacts and influence" to effect change are not necessarily the people with a) the know-how and b) the time to get it started.

Wait, I just caught this. So you DO acknowledge that legalizing poker is at least harder than, say, getting tournaments added?

Allow me to now ask this: how much harder? Your first post posed the question of "how hard can it be?" While that was certainly asked rhetorically, I'll ask it of you: how hard or easy is it? Or put another way, what does it actually entail?

In a previous post, I asked you for some ideas of what Polk, Ivey et al could do. You responded with this:

Creating a video is definitely something within Polk's realm, especially since he has a GOAT-level editor in his corner. So I'll run with this idea by asking a second question: will this "poker union" differ from the Poker Players Alliance, and if so, how and why? After all, the bolded part is precisely what the PPA did. If you're curious to know what was communicated to our country's lawmakers, here are some examples:

https://www.indian.senate.gov/sites/...0testimony.pdf

https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeesche...ocument/184606

In fact, you closed the above post by saying it comes down to "effort and execution." So... what was lacking in the previous effort and execution? For example, is there messaging in the posted testimonies that you would revise?

First thing is literally no one can get Poker, live or online, legalized in America. It must be done state by state.

Second why would you believe any poker pro would be the best to make this happen in any particular state? The might have the most to gain but that doesn’t put them in the position to make it happen. Someone with high profile, deep pockets and POLITICAL CONNECTIONS AND INFLUENCE are the ones to lobby for this.

Selling as a tax generator will not work. States would make more from those degen types of gambling. Most non poker players don’t know or even care that poker is different. They want entertainment with the chance of a big score. Poker is too much work for those people.

I don't have all the answers, the whole point was to get people with;
1.Money (I have none)
2.Influence (I have none)
3.Status (I have 0)

To actually do something about the situation, I did my part as someone with 0/3.

I fail to see what is already being done and why something that is already legal can't become more officially legal. Why don't the pros try and let me know how hard it is, they can dedicate an hour a day to contacting media, social media, politicians and rallying poker players and go from there.

This comes down to opportunity cost, I fail to see what players like Dnegs, Doug, Ivey even do all day that is so much more important, thye've already made 10s of millions, they already have women, children and have succeeded in every area of life.

Poker is ALREADY legal via casinos, it's only "illegal" online due to that POS Adelson.

Politicians bend to people's desires and more taxes benefit them.

Not if playing poker is a pain in the ass as it is now or underground via americas cardroom.

People in general don't take on big projects because of;
1.The work
2.Fear of failure/criticism

When I hear of a good idea, I implement it immediately, Kobe said something similar when he learned a new move, he'd try it NEXT| game, whereas other players were scared of looking bad/silly. Hikaru Nakamura (one of the bst players in chess in the world), recently said he was thinking about making a YT channel with pros analyzing their games so they can make adsense from it as now the pros get 0 from this (very very few of them even have yt), its an amazing idea and he has all the resources to make it happen, yet here we are a few months after he said it and nothing.

Maybe we can even add;

3.Persistence

Because yeah it'll pop and everyone will get behind it when DP drops the first vid, but what happens 3-6-9-12+ months after?

Again to me it comes down to legacy and that it's not THAT much work, they've all probably put 30k+ hours into poker, why not put in 3-500 per year trying to get poker elgalized, especially around the world as it's illegal in most countries as well.

Bringing the entire world online on a place like stars or the other sites would be awesome, rn theres like 1-200k on the biggest sites, but apparently there is 100+ million players in the world, even if theres only 10 mill, so much more could be done to connect people and get something thats already effectively legal (casinos) to become legal.

What work?
What fear of failure or criticism?
What persistence?

You're the one asking how hard it could be. You're the one wondering why Phil Ivey and Doug Polk don't do anything. And then you acknowledge that it's a "big project" and it requires work, persistence, having no fear of failure, and overcoming an aversion of criticism to get done.

Oddly, I think you may have answered your own questions, 118 posts later.

For starters, none of the people you named have children.

But let's suppose for a moment that Ivey or Polk or Negreanu were the types who would hit eight figures in net worth and get married, then say, "Okay, my work is done. I have no need for any more money, I have enough. And I married this person, so she requires no more of my attention or presence. I have nothing else I wish to accomplish now."

(I'll pause for laughter here.)

Assuming such a stopping point exists for them, what motivation would they have to then funnel their time and resources into getting poker legalized? Remember, you're assuming Ivey et al have reached an actual point where they no longer desire to succeed any further, a point at which they feel they have nothing more to accomplish. (Again, I'll pause for laughter.) So why would they take this on?

Finally...

I don't know what you mean by "legal" and "more legal." It's a binary state. Something is either legal or it isn't. Poker is legal under certain conditions. It's also illegal under other certain conditions. Obviously, this part you already know. But effecting change is not about making poker "more legal," it's about altering the conditions under which the game is determined to be legal vs. illegal.

Why don't you let the pros know how easy it is? Then they can dedicate many hours a day contacting media, social media***, politicians and rallying poker players to go from there.

The interesting part of this entire thread is that TheChamp111 pretty much gave you the better route to success in the first reply. Ivey, Polk and Negreanu don't really much ability to do anything about it (well, they have the money part of the holy trinity). But the lawyers and the lobbyists do. And you yourself said they're doing "next to nothing." So start with them. Make them do something rather than nothing (or next to nothing). After all, lawyers and lobbyists understand how laws are written and are amended. A high school dropout like Negreanu? Probably not as knowledgable. But those laywers... get them off their asses and make them put their JDs to good use, dammit!

So Ivey, Polk and other top pros with a combined net worth of 100+ million, reaching tens of millions can't do anythinng?

Got it, certainly the solution of them doing nothing and just going on about their lives is totally fine. Meanwhile America along with the western world has become so degenerate in terms of gambling and this sports betting bs its hilarious.

But you make some good points, poker being totally legal in America/America having a massive underground poker scene/online poker being effectively illegal and the top pros doing nothing makes sense, totally laughable of me to take 5 minutes to make my post.

Although I will admit, poker players whining, going against it or mocking the idea is the most poker players thing ever.

Let me ask you a question;

Do you or do you not find it insane that in America and the western world the most degenerate forms of gambling are promoted while poker is effectively illegal? Do you not find this like fentanyl being legal and weed being illegal?

There u go, this is my claim, knowing people who work at these sites I can confirm they do nothing.

What do YOU think they're doing? From the results; NOTHING, poker only became more illegal in places like Australia, Ontario Canada and other parts that were online on stars before.

You completely missed the point. Legality of poker live and online is a STATE matter. Thus literally no one person can legalize it (or criminalize it, regardless your blame).

Your are also wrong about poker availability live. There are plenty of jurisdictions wo legal regulated poker. There are others where this is very limited or restricted. This is also true for online poker. And just like legalizing live poker is a state by state issue.

Politicians bend to people who can impact them. Fame alone means nothing especially if that famous person can’t move the politicians constituent’s. To a politician any single person means nothing especially if that person can’t vote for him.

For over 22 years, almost to the day, people in the United States have had the ability to play poker online, pretty much anyone in the US, over 18, who wants to play. (One site I know of has operated continually over that period.) Knowing people who work at online poker sites over the years, what they do is provide opportunities for people to play poker. Why do YOU think that's "nothing" ?

There is no criminal law against someone playing poker online in just about any state, nor is there any federal law against someone playing poker online.

Playing poker online for real money has never been illegal for a " mere player " as far as I know (except in isolated instances, in a couple of states, like Washington and Louisiana I believe). If anyone here thinks it is illegal to play, tell us where that's the case. (Hint, generally most gambling prohibitions address "operating" gaming, not "playing" a game like poker. In the US, generally, unless there is a specific law criminalizing an activity, someone is allowed to do it..... In terms of gambling legality, a state often distinguishes between licensed and unlicensed operations of games, I'd like to be educated as to any examples which make mere play of poker a crime.)