Poker Players Alliance Holding Lobby Day in Olympia, Washington
On Thursday, the Poker Players Alliance(PPA) will pick up shop and head cross-country to Washington State for the day. There, a special Lobby Day will be held to convince lawmakers to overturn a 2006 law that makes playing online poker a Class C felony, up there with child pornography and heroin possession. A press release distributed by the PPA on Tuesday explained, “Three of the country’s top poker pros will join Washingtonians traveling across the state to meet with nearly 40 Olympia legislators asking them to overturn Washington’s draconian ban on online poker.”
Leading the charge is Full Tilt Pokerpro Andy Bloch (pictured), a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team who has well over $2 million in career World Series of Poker (WSOP) earnings. Bloch graduated law school from Harvard and passed the Massachusetts bar, although he has never practiced law. He has been a professional poker player for the last 15 years and is a fixture at many of the PPA’s lobbying endeavors.
Also trekking to Olympia is Linda Johnson. “The First Lady of Poker” formerly served as the in-house announcer for the World Poker Tour (WPT) and was just the second woman ever to capture an open WSOP bracelet. Johnson is a co-founder of PokerGives, a charitable organization focused on poker players, and a partner in Card Player Cruises.
Rounding out the clan is Jan Fisher. Like Johnson, Fisher is a member of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and a co-founder of the Tournament Directors Association. Fisher is the Tournament Director of the PartyPoker Million and the Oasis Open. She’s originally from Washington State and has been in the industry for over 30 years.
What’s the hubbub about? Why are poker pros and the PPA headed to Olympia? In 2006, a law was passed that makes playing online poker a Class C felony. Last September, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the regulation following a constitutional challenge from Lee Rousso, who charged that it violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In response, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stopped accepting real money players from Washington State.
Instead of agreeing with Rousso, the State Supreme Court contended, “It is not the role of the judiciary to second-guess the wisdom of the legislature, which enacted this ban. The court has no authority to conduct its own balancing of the pros and cons stemming from banning, regulating, or openly permitting internet gambling.” The Court added that the bill affects in-state and out-of-state online gaming entities the same and, therefore, was in line with the Commerce Clause.
Interestingly, the Washington State Supreme Court also dove into a moral assessment of internet gambling in its decision. The verdict read in part, “Internet gambling introduces new ways to exacerbate these same threats to health, welfare, safety, and morals. Gambling addicts and underage gamblers have greater accessibility to online gambling – able to gamble from their homes immediately and on demand, at any time, on any day, unhindered by in-person regulatory measures.”
Thursday’s activities in Olympia will begin at 8:30am local time with a one-hour legislation briefing at the Red Lion Hotel’s Capitol Room. Then, the group will jet to the State Capitol for meetings with lawmakers until 5:00pm. In addition to the poker pros, PPA Executive Director John Pappas and local members of the one million member strong organization will be on hand.
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