I have nothing against moral backbones, I just think people's expectations are unreasonable.
Here's the OP:
Quote:
Originally Posted by FairPlayUSA
Just wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves. We’re FairPlayUSA, a coalition of poker players, law enforcement officials, consumer protection experts, and companies in the commercial gaming industry. Our goal is to educate policymakers and the public on the need to regulate online poker. Most importantly, we believe it’s time for Congress to make clear that online poker is legal in the U.S., and ensure rigorous consumer protections for the millions of Americans who responsibly enjoy the game.
Our Board of Advisors includes: - Professional Poker Player Greg Raymer
- Former Governor of Pennsylvania and First Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
- Child and Consumer Safety Expert Parry Aftab
You can find out more about us at http://www.fairplayusa.com/
We’ll be in the forums to serve as a point of contact for the organization and to answer any questions that may come up.
They say their coalition includes poker players, they never say they're going to advocate for poker players specifically.
They continue to answer questions over the morning and afternoon of the day they launched, avoiding the tough ones, in all likelihood because they needed to verify with their superiors the stance of their employer before posting it publicly.
DrewOnTilt had a reasonable post here:
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewOnTilt
Believe me when I say that I am going to adopt the old Ronald Reagan line of "Trust, but verify."
I have asked them some pointed questions in this thread, as have others. I am going to give them at least a few days to respond to all of them. If they respond to my satisfaction, then I will support them. If not, then I won't.
That said, I think that judging them as "corporate shills" when this thread is not even 12 hours old is a bit premature. They have a challenge ahead of them in convincing people that they aren't "corporate shills." It's fully understandable that people might think this since they are taking funding from Caesar's. But give them a chance to answer this.
Mpethy got very accusatory a few posts before, with, in my view, very little reason to:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mpethybridge
Why? It's not like they have provided any actual information. We've just been treated to a stream of empty PR-speak platitudes.
I can't help but feel a little sorry for them, though. They came in here with Caesar's typical contempt for players assuming we'd be all "zomg! Greg Raymer! our saviors!" welcoming and they got outed as corporate shills almost immediately.
[ ] FPUSA is a grassroots organization
[ ] FPUSA was ready to deal with 2+2
And the thread devolved.
Mpethy claims they lied about being a grassroots organization, which they had already responded to earlier by saying they defined themselves as a grassroots organization as opposed to a lobbying organization, which is SUPER standard PR, and shouldn't equivocate lying to any reasonable person whose had any experience in the PR world. I was surprised people weren't satisfied with this initial response tbh.
I'm all for vetting, and the investigative work done by 2p2ers, in this thread and others, is excellent.
However, I also fear that 2p2, and, therefore online poker players, have a reputation of being paranoid and untrusting to the point of being unreasonable, which keeps us from being taken seriously by outside groups.
This thread is a perfect example of something that could have been talked through without a flame war, but wasn't, and we could now have soured a relationship with a group that could potentially help our cause a great deal.
This same **** happened with PPA, remember.