We should start a unified effort to protest all of the lives destroyed by his gambling empire.

This guy has got to be the most two-faced, good for nothing holy roller SOB that ever has lived.

WTF you can go into Venetian book, open a Cantor account, and bet sports from home. This should be mentioned in every article.

I think a call for a boycott is in order:

1. Reach out to and rally as many poker pros as possible to get behind the boycott. This is especially relevant for pros sponsored by online sites, such as Antonio Esfandiari.

2. Launch a media blitz, headed by pros as spokespersons, to hit both the poker and mainstream media.

3. Rally the PPA membership to participate in the boycott, and spread the word.

4. Get the state directors, where appropriate, to lead in-person protests at LVS properties.

The reason for the boycott is media coverage, not to affect the LSV financials. The important talking points need to be determined in advance, and should include:

Poker is a peer-to-peer game of skill, not house-banked casino gambling.
Adelson wants to take away our freedom of choice.
The truth is that modern technology ensures better protections for the underage and problem gambler in the online environment than at the LVS casinos.
Adelson is motivated only by self-interest, not real concern for the vulnerable, as evidenced by the fact that his LV properties have long had online sports wagering.
Adelson's real agenda is to stifle the competition. He is winning the competition between the casino corporations at the the brick & mortars, and doesn't want the other companies to gain a life-line through online poker. For that he is willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to manipulate the political process.
Federal anti-gambling legislation only forces players to use unsafe offshore sites.

Sound bites should include:

Adelson is two-faced.
Adelson is only interested in stifling competition.
Regulated online poker is safer than regulated casino gambling.
Prohibition is never the answer.
Prohibition means the criminal element thrives.
Freedom means the right to choose.
Regulation works. Prohibition fails.

+1

Adelson's force seems pretty difficult to fight against through any way other than a boycott. If the new handful of sponsored pros at US-regulated sites could get involved (their companies should certainly see this as a relevant enough threat at this point), that could help this get some real attention.

I agree. The entire poker community needs to get behind this effort. His effort can cause so much damage, Throwing this amount of money at the state level can hinder compacting and/or regulation. This could can set back states' participation by years. Also especially worrisome is trying to strengthen the Wire Act and the UIGEA at the federal level as well.

Thank you for the talking points, PX. I'll be using them. If we need to spread the word, there's a list of major poker players twitter accts. in a thread we used a couple of years ago to try to raise awareness we can use.

Rich,

Is this based on new information?

Or is this just based on his quote from that Bloomberg TV interview a few months back where he expressed more concern about poker because

• it is more popular with young people
• it has an illusion of skill (despite clearly being luck because cards.)
• it has a conspiracy of corporate interests perpetuating a lie of it being a skill game

I'm curious. I haven't seen Adelson call out poker specifically since this interview.

Be careful just how much attention we draw to Adelson and his cause. While we definitely need to meet his lobbying effort with our own, responding directly to him, using his name, and linking to his arguments can be counter productive. We need a message that isn't "**** Sheldon Adelson"

I think an important step we need to take is to discredit Sheldon Adelson and show the general public that he isn't 'looking out for the little guy' with his stance against online poker. we need to collect every negative article ever written about him, any criminal implications, etc. How about that video of him recently where he said we should just nuke Iran instead of negotiate? that would be a good start.

we also need the WSOP/Caesars, WPT, and any other televised poker to make commercials or make frequent references to this fight against alderson during broadcasts. this would probably be the most effective way of raising awareness among the casual poker audience.

I'm a firm believer that money talks the loudest when it comes to any litigation, and even though Adelson has millions to use in his fight against poker, i think the lawmakers will like the new revenue and jobs that will be created too much to sway their opinions. NJ is expected to make tens of millions by the end of 2014 alone, and once other states see this kind of tax revenue coming in, the lawmakers will want to get their greedy hands on that kind of money too.

Sounds like a good project for you.

+1

There was only this one reference to poker by Adelson that I am aware of. Every other reference he made was to "online gambling". Obviously, he is lumping online poker with the rest, but I think our best wedge is to continue to harp on the difference between peer-to-peer poker and casino gaming, rather than to lump ourselves in with all the other pro-online-gambling voices the same way that Adelson is lumping poker together with gambling.

The best way to handle a self-serving PR campaign is to discredit the person behind it. If you are going to leave "Adelson" out of it, you're just throwing water on a grease fire.

It's based on that interview. It may have been just once, but it's fairly clear where he comes down on our issue.

Gotcha. Yeah, I'd characterize that more as not distinguishing between poker and gambling than specifically focusing on poker.

This is based on the article in the Washington Post from yesterday announcing his plans for 2014 to pour millions of dollars into banning igaming, here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...6d4_story.html

I'll get the list and compose some tweets for review this evening when I get home from work. If anyone has suggestions in 140 characters or less, I would appreciate any ideas.

Here's a statement made today from the AGA on igaming prohibition:

http://www.pechanga.net/content/stat...nPlQaQ.twitter

To clarify, my question was about where the assumption that Adelson was specifically focusing on poker (rather than focusing on gambling and treating poker as homogenous with gambling) was coming from.

Yes, this is a great talking point when posting/tweeting about the issue.

He is going after all igaming, but I think he particularly despises online poker from some of his quotes, although I don't have anything I can quote right off hand.

Betting in your pajamas from the comfort of home is a danger to society, but if you're in a room at the Venetion, it's all good...

The Venetian Las Vegas [venetian.com]

Mobile Casino Gaming by Cantor Race & Sports Book

Is there anything you can’t do on a smartphone or tablet nowadays? Mobile Casino Gaming is available to you on property during your stay, and you can even play from your room! Play new and exciting games; Mobile Millions™, Kill the Number™ and Line ‘Em Up™. These games and many others are available to you on your smartphone and tablet-NO TABLE REQUIRED™.

We need to be absolutely certain that you can bet from home and not just on property. I couldn't find anything during a cursory glance at the Venetian web site that indicates you can bet from home.

Edit:

Found it here...

Supersize your sports experience [venetian.com]

And technology joins sports perfectly with the Cantor Race and Sports Book™ app for all smartphones, tablets and PCs. This allows you to wager anywhere in Nevada.

Agreed.

Sounds good. In addition--and I don't know if they have control over it or not--but get poker sites to stop advertising the Venetian deep stack Extravaganza that's coming up. I go to pokernews.com and see a big advertisement for the Extravaganza series. It's also on bluff.com.

Joe Brennan Jr
‏@joebrennanjr

US Congress: If a casino owner, investigated for bribing foreign officials, started a public morals campaign, would you listen to him?

nothing worse than a hypocrite

I asked Engineer this and he never did answer.

It goes beyond the bloomberg interview. i was told by the Wash Post reporter that the Sands spokespeople singled out Internet poker as a particularly harmful enterprise that is subject to additiction, fraud and abuse.

John A. Pappas
PPA, ED

While this is an interesting point LVS does not own the sports book on its property. That space is leased out to Cantor. I doubt this was a consideration when they signed the lease.

Edit: The casino games on that Cantor app only work within the casino property. You cannot go home and play. Sports betting works anywhere in NV.

This seems like as good a time as any to rally the troops. Forget the person behind the message, prove his points wrong in an educated way to people that can make a difference.

He's clearly got poker on his mind, though, and he has talking points at the ready. It shows that we have an idea what his lobbyists are saying, and it also shows us that it's not going to be a poker vs. casino-style gaming thing (and, if it is, we'd probably be on the wrong side of that).

Adelson probably sees poker as the camel's nose under the tent. We're the ones who are active and we're the ones getting legislation introduced. Slowing down poker will slow down the whole thing.

I didn't say he's focusing on poker exclusively. I said he specifically hostile to us. I believe he's quite hostile to the broader gaming issue.

All that being said, I concur that, IMO, he'll be treating poker as homogenous with "gambling".

The discussion that followed addressed it, so I didn't bog things down with a specific reply.