The recent actions by Governor Steve Beshear in the Commonwealth of Kentucky have ignited a maelstrom of controversy from around the industry. In addition to organizations that you’d expect to see on the ground in Kentucky fighting for the rights of online poker players – the Poker Players Alliance and the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, for example – a bevy of other groups have immersed themselves in the fray. One of them is the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), led by long-time political veteran Grover Norquist, who joins us this week on the PocketFives.com Podcast. Norquist will discuss what the ATR’s interest in the survival of online poker in Kentucky is as well as reveal how the organization fits into the puzzle on a national level.

The ATR, throughout its existence, has been managed by Norquist. He told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “The ATR was created in 1985 at the request of the Reagan administration. They asked me to run the grassroots organization to push for lower tax rates as well as simpler, clearer, and more transparent taxes (with an emphasis on lower).” The organization is based in Washington, D.C. and has encouraged many lawmakers, about 50% in total who are currently in office at the national level, to take the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Norquist explains why an organization focused on stymieing increased taxes is interested in the fate of online poker: “We’re opposed to any and all efforts to extend taxes into an area where they weren’t there before. The issue that we’ve focused on here is the government interfering with online poker. We view the internet as a tremendously liberating frontier and we have opposed any and all efforts to tax the internet, tax access to the internet, or limit people’s access to the internet.” All told, the organization, like the Bluegrass Institute, has been able to find common ground with groups like the PPA and iMEGA.

The situation in Kentucky has virtually unified the industry against Governor Steve Beshear’s seizure of 141 internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to major online poker rooms that still accept American customers. If successful, Kentucky will have, in essence, censored the internet: “We’re very unhappy because Governor Steve Beshear is trying to censor internet sites. The Governor’s attempt to censor the internet is step one. What else will he decide he won’t like? One of the reasons the internet is so important is that everyone has access to it. I don’t have a printing press, so I can’t compete with [major newspapers]. However, I can go online and compete with every other blog in the world and share my ideas. It’s bad enough when China does this stuff, but for a U.S. state to do it, it’s awful.”

Norquist stated that the ATR would keep fighting this issue as long as it takes in Kentucky. Appeals are already expected as a result of last week’s ruling by Judge Thomas Wingate. Norquist noted that Beshear’s push in Kentucky is not about limiting gambling: “Gambling is permitted in Kentucky at horse tracks and in Bingo halls. The idea that this is anti-gambling is silly. If people don’t like gambling in Kentucky, they would shut down the horse racing tracks.”

The ATR has also worked with the PPA and other groups on a national level, although it is opposed to taxation efforts. Nevertheless, an ATR staffer won the PPA’s charity poker tournament held during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Norquist gave his projection for the future of online poker in the United States: “Online poker will be successful as being legal and proper for adults. There is a constant effort by politicians to say that they’re for freedom or liberty except [in certain areas]. That’s how we’re in the present mess we’re in.”

You can listen to the rest of Norquist’s thoughts by checking out the PocketFives.com Podcast. Visit the PocketFives.com Legislative Forum to discuss current issues and check out the Americans for Tax Reform official website for more information on the ATR's stance on proposed legislation that affects the online poker community.



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