I am a 27 year old living in Ohio. I graduated from OSU with a degree in criminology/sociology. I have voted only once in my life, in 2000. I am GUESSING my absentee ballot wasn't count in that election fiasco. I have 2 boxer dogs. Other than that, I am a sober non-drug using American with a lot of spare time. I got upset with how online poker is now and see that it needs to be changed.

mookman5

Mookman, were you born in the US? I am wondering if English is your native language as your speech seems choppy and disjointed. This would help other readers get some perspective as to whether its your opinions that incoherent, or simply an understandable struggle to express them.

Yes I was born in the U.S. furthermore, I do not care what my writing style looks like or if it is choppy, I am still getting my point across. This is just an online poker forum, I can assure you the letters I have handwritten and emailed to many news agencies and law enforcement agencies are much more understandable. I did so because bringing attention to the current state of online poker, which appears to be a poorly regulated industry. This is an industry that has insider cheating scandals and used 3rd party payment processors to circumvent U.S. laws. Yet we are supposed to believe these companies and the KGC, who gets alot of money from these companies, and just take there word for what happened. Trust that Ultimatebet never tried to cover its tracks like Absolute Poker did?

Uh....no you're not.

Pretty sure my head just xploded

I have just read the PPA statement and this thread. I think the statement is very strong and appropriate and fits to core mission of the organization. The PPA is our lobbying arm for congress. Their mission is to convince congress to overturn their insane internet poker laws. To do this they must persuade a majority of both houses. They can only do this by continuously advancing facts and arguments to overcome the arguments of the prohibitionists, like the BS that "kids will steal mom's credit card" and "most college gamblers commit suicide" (if that were true the percentage of college graduates in the population would be about 5% like it was in the 1920s).

The other, secondary target is the media. If they can get the media to take an interest in their (our) side of the story from a legal, moral, and political standpoint, then more pressure is brought to bear on members of congress (why have so many of them forgotten that the preamble of our founding document talks about "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness"?)

This is all the PPA can do, and if they succeed, we get our hobby back (and cheaters would then run the risk of doing hard time just like those who get caught cheating in live games in Nevada).

If they fail, then folks like me who have families, jobs, and busy lives and who do not live in a gambling area will just have to invest time and money to travel to play live a few times a year instead of conveniently playing from home when we can spare a few hours a week.

PS: I used to be such a patriot as a young man. America was a place where one truly was left alone to pursue one's own happiness as one defined it. I am getting increasingly bitter about having to pay massive taxes in order to have my personal freedoms steadily eroded. I am not sure how this huge shift has occurred in my 51 years on the planet - when I retire and have lots more thinking time maybe I'll come up with a theory. For now, I am becoming increasingly bitter and world weary, with this poker thing being a major straw for me. I was a post Moneymaker poker boom guy - learned the game, found it a fascinating combination of math and psychology, and just as I am starting to have some real success the rug gets pulled out by the idiots I helped put in office for pocketbook reasons.

I think we should all support the PPA as much as we can - its our only real hope.

"The attempt to enforce an outright prohibition of online poker" must refer, mistakenly, to the UIGEA and its banking regulations... i guess?

Or are there other recent legislative proposals that I've missed?

ummm... what?

This previous post wasn't bad, but that original "cliff notes" one..... ugh

great statement.

I don't think there's any doubt that the UIGEA was an attempt to shut down online poker. The politicos just aren't smart enough to actually write an amendment to a ports bill that achieves banning online poker constitutionally.