Called, interns were polite but not really responsive. Will write tonight

Well, I still havent gotten an answer as to why the online casinos or sportsbooks are still up and running when every law in existence clearly states this to be illegal.

Senator Mark Udall of Colorados assistant had no idea what I was even talking about. SO I explained the situation to him, and had a nice chat. He asked If I was part of a big organized group, I said yes the PPA.

I think it's nice to try and get a chatty with the interns, dont be so gung ho on getting your points out right awa, set yourself apart and stick out in their head, so when it comes time for them to mention the phone calls they got, yours will be the one he mentions.

This.

Take out the N. Kor reference - this was really bad - here's the points I am using now.

1. Current UIGEA restrictions on US citizens that are part of the online poker community are a form of internet censorship and repression. Much of the rest of the world has more freedom to access internet poker than the US allows its citizens, including Russia, Germany, Poland, even China.
2. Online poker is not illegal for individuals living in the US (where it is not specifically prohibited on a state or local level)
3. The US government should be protecting American citizens by allowing Internet poker sites to become licensed and regulated under US law, rather than taking away citizens’ freedom to choose to play online poker for fun or for a livelihood. UIGEA should be repealed.
4. the recent DOJ action based on UIGEA has either directly seized monetary assets that belong to me or has prohibited my ability to retrieve these monetary assets. I have not broken any laws and the seized assets do not belong to the entities or individuals being indicted by the DOJ.
5. Three questions that I need answered:
How do I request that these assets be returned to me?
when am I going to be allowed to make this request?
how long will it take to have these request processed?

Lets not forget Republicans are the group who started this whole mess.

Bob Goodlatte R-VA "online gambling is sucking billions out of the US"

Jim Leach R-IA "The potential threat of identity theft and fraud is high for the individual bettor just as the risk posed to our national security from terror and criminal organizations that control such sites"


John Kyl R-AZ online gambling is the "crack cocaine of gambling"

Let me be clear, im NOT suggesting we dont contact Republicans reps, if we need to contact EVERYONE.

Please also CC your emails to major liberal media sources such as:

Ed Shultz
ED@edshultzshow.com
Rachel Maddow
Rachel@msnbc.com

If we get our story on MSNBC this could be HUGE!!!!!

Sent out e-mails to my lawmkers and made a few calls. Didn't talk any elected officials but the people answering the calls seemed to be interested, even if they were pretending (some seemed to be?) Will do some follow-up calls later in the week

Didn't read 350+ posts so sorry if this has been suggested before. Obama is having a facebook townhall meeting on Wed. April 20 at 4:45 EST and is inviting questions either on facebook or on http://www.whitehouse.gov/facebooktownhall

I submitted my question; maybe if there are enough people sending in questions about it Obama would feel obligated to say something on the matter?

My questions submitted via the whitehouse website:

Why can citizens of Communist and third world countries enjoy the freedom of playing online poker, yet US citizens who pay taxes, and fight wars to protect our freedoms cannot? The DOJ seized online poker website domain names making the sites inoperable and access to millions of peoples' funds inaccessible. Why are our freedoms being taken away and our money confiscated by the government?

Im definately a fan of keeping our message short and sweet but i think polls can speak volumes. In 2006 when the UIGEA unfortunately passed, heres a poll:

Wall Street Journal
85% oppose government prohibition of online gambling

So why did the UIGEA ever get passed into law?

Backdoor, late night politics. The end

Good idea, although.

Ed Schultz
ed@edschultzshow.com

Called my state (FL) reps and senators, and left messages.

The intern at Sen. Bill Nelson's office interrupted me early in my spiel, and said, "so you want him to legalize online poker, right?" This made it seem like he had already heard several similar calls today.

I have only read a little bit of this thread so I apologize if this happened to be in here somewhere, but I'm wondering if anyone has the links to studies on the percentage of problem gamblers playing online poker as opposed to other types of gambling? I remember reading about at least one study which showed that addicts prefer other types of games but google is quite unhelpful at locating anything remotely relevant. I'd like to reference this in passing in a letter that I write, but I want to make sure that I have my facts right and that I can provide a citation.

Has anybody seen any comments by Obama on this? There is no reference to to online poker on the DOJ's site or the White House's site. Is it strange that Holder doesn't have anything to say about the indictments? Is this just not important enough to comment on, or is there another reason why Obama and Holder are keeping mum?

Or, are the lack of comments because they were enjoying their weekends?

I just posted on reddit, taking the internet censorship angle as I thought it would be most effective for that audience. Upvote pls!

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/c...ression_fight/

I think that this is not considered a big issue to the white house. Thus the comments will probably not even really be there. Or possibly the white house doesn't want to say anything about what the DOJ is doing.

Story is coming up on fox news.

I see soo many people talking about "saving" online poker. Please understand that the odds are that online poker WILL be re-implemented, just have different faces running the show(TRUMP,HARRAHS)..Im telling you, this is really about the billions of dollars the brick and mortar casinos are missing out on. Donald Trump is one of the fav's to run for the republican party right now. You dont think he has plenty of friends in the Senate???

This will be positive for Americans and players worldwide in the long run, if we take action and continue to take action until our industry is legalized. I have put in many hours and will be putting in at least an hour a day until then (even if it takes years).

Let's go and never give up. Do everything the PPA wants, including join.
http://theppa.org/takeaction/

Call, email and fax every representative (not just your own). At least say, "I lost my job, please support online poker players and H.R. 1174, I pay taxes and vote."
www.congress.org

Contact the sponsors of H.R. 1174, which would legalize online poker, and voice support.
Rep. Frank: www.congress.org/bio/id/302
Rep. Campbell: www.congress.org/bio/id/30172
Rep. King: www.congress.org/bio/id/406
Rep. Perlmutter: www.congress.org/bio/id/2130

Call the White House comment line.
202-456-1111

Write letters to influential media outlets. Make them short but sweet. Use www.publishaletter.com.
It has every newspaper. Inundate USA Today, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Ed Shultz
ED@edshutlzshow.com
Rachel Maddow
Rachel@msnbc.com

Use Facebook and other social media to increase awareness and organize.

Let's pressure Negreanu, Lederer, Ivey and the other faces of Full Tilt and Stars to use their celebrity to help.

Im not so sure Lederer and Ivey are going to be so willing to be that "hands on" at the moment. Not with Raymond Bitar still sitting in prison, idt.

I really like the idea of trying to boycott any form of gambling for a specified period of time.. especially the WSOP. It won't be that hard of a thing to accomplish.

probably will say that online gambling causes child abuse and is a sin.

That email is off can you guys change it to:

Ed Schultz
ed@edschultzshow.com

If a MOD could please correct my spelling error it would be greatly appreciated.

** Ed Schultz was missing the "C" in his name in my original post.

Correct email address is : ED@edschultzshow.com
Thanks guys

Im starting to like the sound of CANADA lol.

Obama is having a facebook townhall meeting on Wed. April 20 at 4:45 EST and

is inviting questions either on facebook or on

http://www.whitehouse.gov/facebooktownhall

SUBMIT THE QUESTION IN THE COMMENT BOX! EVERYONE!!!!! WE ALL DO

IT, THEY MAY FEEL PRESSURED TO RESPOND


Why can citizens of Communist and third world countries enjoy the freedom of
playing online poker, yet US citizens who pay taxes, and fight wars to protect
our freedoms cannot? The DOJ seized online poker website domain names
making the sites inoperable and access to millions of peoples' funds
inaccessible. Why are our freedoms being taken away and our money
confiscated by the government?