I don't see how PS still serves the US if they're denied an license, or serve states that enact a similar law like Washington (unless overturned by SCOTUS). PS is licensed legally to operate in several countries and jurisdictions, they might be putting their license at risk in some jurisdictions if they're found to be violating the laws of other countries.

Two other threads on this:

The Zoo: PokerStars to Stop Serving Washington State Residents
NVG: Washington State Residents can no longer play real money on Pokerstars

The problem here is that in my experience most regular B&M players play on the Internet sparingly, or not all, so it will be difficult to garner enough support to hurt the business of the card rooms and casinos. I have several friends that either make a living or earn a substantial side income playing in the local B&M card rooms in my area. They rarely, if ever, play on the Internet. It would be a tough sell to ask them to give up their livelihood and/or pastime because mine is threatened. (I'm not in Washington, btw)

I made a post on my facebook about this with the ppa link. as I am sure many of you most of my facebook friends are non poker players so I took the internet freedom angle. Perhaps if we all could make a simple post on facebook and twitter and get some of non poker playing friends and family involved it will make a differnce.

Here is what I wrote feel free to use it or modify:

The state of Washington won a court case to ban online poker. In turn pokerstars decided to not break any laws and will not be offering any resident of washington service. This may not seem like a big deal to many but it is. This is the land of the free we should be able to decide what we want to look at on the internet and if we want to gamble or play cards. Please click this link and spend 60 seconds to send pre written letters to your reps telling them not to take your internet freedom away.
http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/home/

Any links to the WSC's opinion? Or the full name of the case?

Well I'm freaking out. I pray to all things holy that FTP doesn't pull out

http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/?f...name=830401MAJ

And the thread in this forum

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/57...ington-882746/

I could clear that up for them. They passed the law. Until further notice they apparently had the authority to pass it.

I actually wonder what the legal opinions that they got said. I can't imagine a lawyer could tell any client to disobey a law without getting disbarred. They could tell them that in their legal opinion the law is unconstitutional, but that still doesn't give citizens or businesses the right to break the law, correct?


To the poster who said PS press releases and everything show that they obey every law, aren't this mislabeling financial transactions to try to avoid UIGEA enforcement? I think they have every right to say UIGEA does not apply to them, but breaking banking regulations is still not legal. So, it's not like they're exactly on the up and up as it is. Seems to me they try to ride the line as close as they possibly can and I don't think they're opposed to stepping over the line if it's +EV to do so. At least that's my speculation from what I observe.

Also, for the record I think PS is doing a great job. I'm just not going to say they're innocent little angels.

Pstars has stated publicly that they have never miscoded financial transactions.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/v...ransfers-12252

“PokerStars does not, nor ever has engaged in the practices of ‘mis-coded’ credit card transactions. We have therefore been unaffected by any crackdown by Visa or Mastercard to close down such ‘mis-coded’ accounts.” They also add weight to the claims that MasterCard and Visa are caving in to pressure from the UIGEA. “The only way that PokerStars is affected by credit card declines is when issuing banks in the United States decide that they will decline 7995 coded transactions.”

Interesting play by Stars. I really hope the PPA is doing more than just blasting some emails here. Its not every day you just get handed thousands of living martyrs.

I don't think people realize how quick and fast a poker site they have been playing on can stop taking their business. I remember I was playing happily on Party Poker, Poker Room, Paradise and a few other sites, having so many bonuses to clear that if I played 24/7 I still wouldn't have time to clear them all - Remember when Party Poker had a bonus EVERY THURSDAY? Then I woke up one day and just like that Party was gone, Paradise was gone, it was over. It could very easily happen that we could wake up one morning and see Pokerstars and Full Tilt stop taking USA based players. It could happen really fast and without warning. The ONLY chance is to pass legislation. Those arguing for the status quo because they don't want to pay their taxes or whatever are ignorant of the facts and living in a dream world.

And how many third processors have they relied on who intentionally [and unlawfully] misrepresent the purpose of their businesses in order to process transactions for them? Oh right, plausible deniability.

Obviously arguing against this is not in my best interest but bull **** posturing is a major pet peeve of mine.

Not really. PS isn't located in Washington state.

I didn't say they were. In fact, I want them to push the envelope.

What would you have them do instead?

No dissent???

It was unanimous.

I'm thrilled with what they do. But I feel it should go unmentioned - period. We are a mostly like minded group of people. Trying to argue the hood on the corner at 5th and MLK has just been waiting for a friend for the past 5 hours is grating. The people in this forum are not the ones who need to be convinced.

Damn, PPA hired Akin Gump? Things must be pretty good on the fundraising front.

I hope the good citizens of Washington can get Gregoire out of office. I have never dealt with a more rude arrogant politician's office in my life.

Thanks again engineer for all your hard work for the poker community.

Any reason to believe ftp won't follow Stars here? They must be receiving similar legal council, no?

One positive I see coming from this is that state laws will be harder to pass now. Hopefully next time a state tries to put laws on the books poker players will finally start to care. In Mass. We made some noise this year (enough to stop the bill), but hopefully it is 10X more the next state that tries now that everyone realizes that laws will kill their poker livelihood or hobby

I thought I read somewhere that something like 75% of the Washington population thought the law banning online poker was wrong.

If that's true, getting signatures for a referendum or whatever shouldn't be that hard. If the voters could decide, wouldn't that be faster than waiting for a hearing with SCOTUS?

Those of you who play in WA should start writing letters to editors of local newspaper to start priming the public for a petition or whatever. And, actually, with print newspaper so obsolete, go with whatever local internet sites there are, and with local television news.

Surely, SOMEBODY in WA has a compelling story that news outlets would love to feature. I remember playing with a guy from WA who makes a living playing online poker because his wife is disabled and he is her primary caregiver, so he can't work outside the home. This is the kind of story that breaks my heart. THIS is the kind of story that needs to get out there.

The general public needs to know that a portion of the U.S. population is EMPLOYED playing online poker. Players in Washington state and throughout the U.S. who have a story to tell, should tell it to anyone who will listen. Don't tell your story to Cardplayer or Bluff Magazine. Tell it to mainstream non-poker playing media. Educate those who know nothing about your livelihood.

And be sure to tell people that you don't have to play poker to be a member of the Poker Players Alliance!

gla

The bigger problem with a B&M boycott is that B&M casinos don't really make that much money on poker tables anyway. Other forms of gaming far more efficiently separate the players from their money. They really only feature so many poker tables because it draws people into the casinos who want to play poker; those people will then play other games and spend money.

The response of many B&M casinos to such a boycott would probably be "fine, you don't want to play so much poker, we'll just put some more Pai Gow tables and blackjack tables and (if permitted under law) slot machines and video poker in there instead".

Well the only minor saving grace is my account still has me listed as from New Westminster BC. So I'll still be able to play when I am away, but holy F$$K!! This is horrible. I was never a big fan of Full Tilt, but I guess I'll be going there for a while until they too pull out. I put O/U at about 3 months.

I may need to look a little harder at heading back to Vancouver permanently. At least I already got a PCA seat...

DK

Make it clear when you contact your representatives you will not be voting for ANYONE who supports taking away rights from Washingtonians. This includes anyone who sponsored the bill to take away our rights, co-sponsored, or even VOTED FOR the bill. I am fed up. I am active in politics, but feel a lot of poker players do not want to be bothered. Well it is time to be bothered, unless you want your right to play poker online taken away for good. Give them hell poker players, let them know you are going to be heard, and that you will be voting with this voice!