PPA announces major organizational changes and asks its members about sports betting: https://theppa.org/press-release-02072018


WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 7, 2018) – Today, the Poker Players Alliance -- the leading poker and internet gaming advocacy group -- announced changes to its leadership, with continued focus on grassroots engagement. At the end of February, John Pappas will step down from his role as the organization’s Executive Director, a position he has held for more than a decade. Pappas will remain on the board of directors and will continue to be a strategic advisor to the PPA. Rich Muny, who currently serves as Vice President, will take on the day-to-day responsibilities in his new role as PPA’s President.

“John is a tremendous leader and a true professional. Under his guidance, PPA has emerged as a policy advocacy and grassroots powerhouse in Washington D.C. and in state capitals across the country. For almost a decade, he has been the political voice and face of the poker community and regulated internet gaming advocates. He leaves the organization in a strong position to continue to ensure that consumer voices drive the internet gaming debate,” stated the PPA’s longest serving board member and former chair, Poker Hall of Famer Linda Johnson.

Click here to see some of PPA’s accomplishments over the past decade.

“There has never been greater momentum than right now for the advancement of sensible internet gaming policy in the U.S. Whether lawmakers are considering poker, casino gambling or even sports betting, a strong and organized grassroots effort will be critical to legislative success. I am proud of the work I have done with the PPA board of directors and the amazing PPA staff to bring us to this point. I will miss working for the poker community on a day-to-day basis, but I am confident that the PPA will continue its great work with Rich Muny at the helm,” said John Pappas.

Over the past several months, the PPA has been adjusting to a significant reduction in financial support from the internet gaming industry and thusly has refocused its efforts on cost effective grassroots advocacy. During this time, the organization has not missed a beat and was an instrumental force in the legalization of internet gaming in Pennsylvania this past October.

“I am honored that the PPA Board of Directors and the poker community have entrusted me with this role, and I join my fellow board members in thanking John Pappas for his decade of outstanding leadership in the fight for poker,” said Rich Muny, incoming PPA President. “I look forward to leading the poker community in this fight, building on the terrific successes of 2017.”

Additionally, the PPA is gauging its membership interest on the topic of sports betting and consumer advocacy. With changes to federal and state laws governing sports betting being considered this year, it is important to know if PPA’s large and organized advocacy efforts can be leveraged to assist consumers as new public policy around sports betting is established. PPA has launched a webpage dedicated to sports betting and is emailing a survey to its membership.

About The Poker Players Alliance

The Poker Players Alliance (theppa.org; twitter.com/ppapoker; facebook.com/theppa) is a nonprofit membership organization comprised of over 1,000,000 online and offline poker players and enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game and to protect poker players' rights.

I am against adding sports betting to the mission. Poker is complicated enough. Indifference toward all other forms of gambling is the easiest path.

Thanks. TBH, though, I don't see future corporate donations from poker-only entities and, without that, I don't know that we have a path to continued viability. Even with me back to being an unpaid volunteer as of the beginning of this year, it's a narrowing opportunity in terms of funding we need to continue operations.

Not sure if that influences your opinion here, but options seem very limited.

It does. I'm surprised with the gains that have been made over the last couple of years that now is the time the funds dry up. With the PA success and discussions on the table in several other states (including West Virginia!!!), it feels like we're right on the verge of breaking through.

With all due respect, if the organization cannot sustain itself from the support of the players, it might be time to quit calling it the 'Poker Players' Alliance. There doesn't seem to be a very strong alliance of poker players anymore, if there ever was.

If the organization is worring about its own viability, and ensuring its continued existence in whatever form works is its current primary goal, then it makes complete sense to wrap up being the Poker Players Alliance and become a general gambling advocacy group, with continued financial backing of industry.

What I would like to see, personally, is a true player-representative group come out of the ashes, with less emphasis on DC lobbying and more emphasis on helping local organization.

When we talk of consumer protections for players, we are talking about protecting players from the operators. To be supported by the operators and to do their bidding does not server the players' interests.

I have all but given up in my state, not because I believe the legislature will never budge on the issue, quite the contrary. It is because the industry is driving the conversation and the players do not really have a voice.

Players need that voice. Letting the industry drive the conversation is not what is best for players

In my humble opinion

Well put!

+1

+1

I don't see sports betting advocacy as being compatible with poker advocacy without becoming general gambling advocacy, which is not necessarily a bad thing and may go on to help poker, but an organizational shift towards this would be stepping over a clear red line of what the Poker Players Alliance is to me.

Thank you to John for his many years of work here, and Rich for your continued efforts as always.

In fairness, "Alliance" means we players have an alliance, and we've always been open about having industry donations. So long as there's no quid pro quo, there's nothing that takes away from being a player organization, as these funds simply provide the resources we need to operate. As you (personally) know, this stuff isn't cheap, and if players aren't all onboard now, imagine what would happen if we couldn't even hope to be effective.

I think that would be a challenge. As both of you have experience trying to organize players, I know you understand all that would go into it.

PPA won't become an industry group. We could expand to include players of other forms of gaming, but we would dissolve the organization before becoming a de jure or de facto industry group.

There is another benefit. If PASPA is ruled unconstitutional, some states will push forward on sports betting. If PPA is involved, we can keep poker in the discussion.

For sure. Trust me, it feels just as bad here.

Poker is already secondary to casino, and if sports betting becomes the thing, poker will drop even further behind. Once 'poker only' became forgotten, poker no longer needs to be part of the conversation anymore, it just goes without saying that if online casino is authorized, poker will be as well.


Of course it would be a challenge, the question is whether or not the PPA is up to that challenge. It seems on one hand you want to represent the 'grassroots' and on the other you want to say the 'grassroots' aren't there.

Is it impossible to find an interested poker player, perhaps one who lives in the capitol city of his/her state, who would be willing to learn (perhaps from the PPA) how to organize a grassroots political committee?

If players want to be taken seriously on this issue, they have to participate, and in a way that is taken seriously. But your average poker player likely doesn't know the first thing about lobbying, but with some guidance and leadership, that could change

Are you able to expand on this any further? I know of the SCOTUS sports betting case. Does a positive ruling for the industry have any implications for poker specifically? Would it be realistic to have sports betting legalized nationwide (at least if the states want to legalize) but still have online poker be outlawed?

I'll give you my 2 cents ... poker is not longer the push

if online casino is approved, it would (likely) go without saying that would include poker

but 'poker only' isn't happening anywhere, and it is something even Pokerstars is no longer interested in

Sportsbetting without online casino is a distinct possibility, but it could be that sportsbetting becomes just another online casino offering, in which case it is still full casino or nothing

And at the end of the day, if the PPA is just following wherever the industry is at the moment, it isn't really adding anything of value.

Bottom line, lawmakers know there is a market for online gambling, all players do is confirm that said market exists

If players are pushing specific legislation, they aren't having an effect

I would hate to see the PPA just fold, but I'd prefer that to it moving forward as a full fledge gambling advocate that has completely lost its identity.

these are my humble opinions

Agree on expanding into sportsbetting, and possibly even full online gambling. Poker and sportsbetting are both clearly skill-based enough to produce winners - given that rake is limited to acceptable amounts. Both have close ties and common opponents/issues. Pooling resources and implementing efficient practices is almost a no-brainer.

To further the cause, there are blockchain-based poker/sportsbetting projects currently in development which could give us the actual tools to implement a fair decentralized governance system for poker and possibly gambling as a whole. A few of these already have significant amounts of funding and support, they will not be going away anytime soon.

Grassroots are there for activism. Are they there for doing ALL the organizing and funding? I don't know. Want to try it, either through PPA or independently?

The PPA is not a grassroots organization, and in my experience never was.

When I took the spot as PPA State Director for Florida some years ago, I started to organize volunteers from the poker players in my state for three actions:
1. Meeting with the federal Senators and Congressmen from Florida (individually).
2. Reaching out to other poker players to get them involved.
3. Contacting the local cardrooms to garner their support.
The PPA helped by sending my introductory email to all the Florida PPA members to ask that they join the effort by contacting me.

At the point where I had gotten volunteers lined up to start in on #1, I got a phone call from John Pappas and the PPA's consultant lawyer in Tallahassee. The purpose of the call was to convince me not to do #1 - that is not to have volunteers across the state to individually visit their federal congressional representatives. Apparently this came out of some prior incident where a volunteer had visited their rep and had done something wrong that upset the apple cart.

That pretty much killed off the participation of many of the volunteers I had organized and were ready to go, as I had to stop them from going forward.

This not what a "grassroots organization" does.

But, I didn't give up and continued to work on #2 & #3.

I refocused my efforts on getting the local cardooms involved. My efforts pretty much revolved around getting the volunteers to get the cardrooms across the state to distribute the PPA flyers to their poker players from their front desk. I had set up with the PPA national official to ship boxes of fliers to my volunteers as needed. I got one or two boxes and then they stopped coming. When I called, I was told that they ran out but they would be reprinted shortly. Six months later I was still waiting for them to be reprinted.

That pretty much killed off the participation of my remaining volunteers I had organized.

This not what a "grassroots organization" does.

But I didn't give up.

Not too long after, the PPA came up with a program to get more state chapter activity going. They announced it to me and the other state directors, and promised that they were establishing an official state chapter structure, where each state could have their own state registered chapter, keep their own finances and bank account, etc. Pretty much what any other national organization with state chapters does. To launch this, they also set up a game for state directors - any that got 100 new local PPA members within the next number of months (I forget exactly how long) would get awarded an entry to a $1500 WSOP event.

I went to work on this, organizing a free training event with three poker pros (Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher, along with Donna Blevins from Florida) at one of our local Florida cardrooms, in conjunction with a charity tournament for a local non-profit that raises funds for the Florida Special Olympics. The idea was to get all the attendees to become PPA members, and to use the event as a kickoff for the new state chapter.

In the meantime, I waited for the PPA to come through with their promised state chapter structure. And waited. After several inquiries, I eventually I got the call from John Pappas and the national PPA lawyer consultant to explain why they decided not to do it.

This not what a "grassroots organization" does.

I followed through with my training event and signed up 78 new PPA members (IIRC). It was a great event (thanks again Linda, Jan & Donna!). The staff member from the PPA that was going to come cancelled out a week or so beforehand.

I gave up.

It's not that I think the PPA has not done anything for the cause of poker players. To quote Rich Muny:

But all of these actions were initiated and organized by PPA staff at the national level. Yes, poker players from around the country have participated in PPA campaigns for letter writing, emailing, tweeting, etc. But the PPA never empowered the state chapters, and the political activism almost never originated from the grassroots level.

Rich, I thank you for all your work for poker players, first as a volunteer and then as a PPA staff member. But just because you started as a very active volunteer doesn't prove that the PPA operates at and has depended upon the grassroots level for its effectiveness. The decision-making and activism has always been organized, dictated and controlled by the national office. Perhaps your Daily Action Plan, in the beginning, was the one exception. Eventually that was brought under the umbrella of the national office as well.

I don't object to the PPA changing to a group to advocate for online gambling or sports betting. The PPA has no official mandate from its members, just as the members have no voting power other than their checkbook. Personally, I won't support the group, but then I'm not a dues-paying or participating member of the PPA any longer anyway.

Does the PPA want to be a grassroots organization or does it want to spend corporate money in DC?

What I would like to see from the PPA is this ....

Starting with current state directors who are still active (and recruit directors in states where they aren't) ....

Help with establishing official political committees; help comply with licensing and reporting requirements; allow them to fundraise for their state efforts

Prepare legislation; don't be stuck in the 'whatever Pokerstars wants is what is best for players' mind set, there are other means and methods by which online poker could be made available to players; some states Pokerstars is NEVER going to fight for, or any operator; we don't believe in dominos anymore

Maybe offer some online training (videos, webinars, conference calls, etc) in ways to reach lawmakers, things to say, things to avoid saying

GET BILLS INTRODUCED IN STATE LEGISLATURES

Don't follow the industry crowd, we need to independantly get this issue before lawmakers

I managed to write a bill and get it introduced in my state's legislature, pretty much by myself. Imagine what I might have been able to do if I actually knew wtf I was doing instead of 'winging it'

I appreciate all of your efforts for poker. Yes, it's a shame that there were some limitations caused by prior volunteers working under the PPA name. I wish I had known at the time, as I said last time we met up in person, as I'd have advocated for you to be able to do all that.

Thanks, FWIW, the DAP was never brought under national control. Rather, I moved into a national role and brought it with me, deciding that pushing the "independent" narrative was a distinction without a difference. But, it always stayed under my control.

Good luck being one without the other.

People here on 2+2 (especially NVG) complain that PPA hasn't singlehandedly steamrolled state legislatures, when we claimed only that we'd facilitate player activism and engagement (and potentially some lobbying support). The per-state costs associated with what some here seem to think should be easy would be astronomical, and I can't see a players being the sole funders. Of course, if someone wishes to try, this is absolutely the time to do it.

Then why hasn't anyone put together such a group?

Actually, PPA is such a group now. We don't have any corporate donors, Stars Group or otherwise. And, we have no paid staff. John and I are unpaid volunteers as of 1/1 (returning me to where I was up until just after Black Friday), as is our IT manager.

So, we hold no stranglehold over anyone else wishing to organize players, nor for that matter did we ever.

Thanks for the input everyone. I know some would like PPA to remain afloat and others do not. If you're in the later group, please think of what you can do support player advocacy outside of PPA. It can be done.

I'll tell you what Rich, that whole "don't like what we're doing start your own group" bull**** wears thin, and all you're doing is assuring the PPA doesn't get one thin dime from me

YOU ASKED US FOR MONEY

If you want our support, you want our money, you better be doing something to earn it. You don't want to take input, you aren't accountable to the players at all, why should anyone support you?

Rest in Peace PPA

Easy. It's because our continued viability is anything but guaranteed. For someone who wants to be active but who has decided PPA can't be the vehicle, this is the time to think toward the future.

There's no reason to have a gap in activism...especially for those in states like NY and MI where bills are pending.