Many P5ers have posted about payment problems. While the causes of this specific issue are not yet known, IMO there will always be risks associated with federal and state authorities going after various aspects of online poker. This includes states trying to block sites, feds enforcing UIGEA (with its unclear applicability to poker) and federal financial laws, and other potential actions. [EDIT: We can now confirm that the Feds have frozen our funds]

I'm not sure why some here used to think state and federal governments would just ignore us. They will not. The status quo is inherently unstable. The idea that the U.S. will indefinitely permit offshore sites to offer services to Americans while prohibiting onshore companies from doing the same is simply ridiculous on its face. The idea that domestic gaming companies, lotteries, and horse racing interests will just sit back and watch is even more ludicrous.

I hope this will serve as a wake-up call for us to fight back hard. Will you join me in standing up for our rights?

Here's what I'm thinking. Please post your opinions on these and add to them, but let's all plan to stand up for our rights:

• If you've not done so in the past 30 days, please send the PPA letters to Congress and Obama right now.
• Call your Congressman and Senators on Monday morning and demand your rights.
• If you haven't yet, join the PPA (or upgrade).
• I need you all on Poker Legislation. Will you post there at least twice per week? A very active PL forum is WAY +EV for us. If you help, we'll have this jamming and it will be the go-to place for all things related to poker rights.
• Join me on Twitter. I have over 22,000 followers and we'll be pushing plenty of poker rights issues through this network. There are a lot of people on Twitter who don't play poker but who care deeply about Internet freedom. We can reach them, and they will stand with us. We blasted Minn. Gov. Pawlenty rather successfully with viral Twitter alerts. We'll continue to do this with other targets.
• Participate in actions like the call to Rep. Bachus.
• Let's bring in more folks to help with the fight. After all, the Internet belongs to all of us, so everyone should wish to do their part to keep it free. Click here to Twitter an announcement to review this thread (good promotion for P5s as well).
• Please post your commitment here on this thread.

We can win this.

Thanks!

 

Originally Posted by cjcut

already fixed

Fixed forever?

I don't know about you, but I like to know I can withdraw my money and deposit it in a bank. Modern life works much better that way. Let's fight to ensure some longevity to an online poker career.

 

Originally Posted by vjpconst1

Though a bill with the gambling wording was previously debated and passed by the House of Representatives,<sup id="cite_ref-3"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></sup><sup id="cite_ref-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></sup> the SAFE Port Act (H.R. 4954) as passed by the House on May 4th (by a vote of 421-2) and the United States Senate on September 14th (98-0),<sup id="cite_ref-6"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></sup> bore no traces of the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act that was included in the SAFE Port Act signed into law by George W. Bush on October 13th, 2006.

Thanx GWB. Thanx.

The House passed HR 4411 by 317-93. It was worse than UIGEA, as it amended the Wire Act to make it clearly applicable to the Internet (including poker). It was watered down and tacked onto the Safe Ports Act as UIGEA. The Safe Ports Act that passed does contain UIGEA (it's right at the end).

 

Originally Posted by vjpconst1

Thanx GWB****Edit**** and 317 D-Bag Congressmen. Nice Work!. Thanx.

True. Keep in mind that we lost 317 of 410 (77.3%) voting congressmen. To me, that shows that we'd better be fighting this one with all we have.

 

Originally Posted by vjpconst1

Just want to thank you engineer for all the hard work. Please keep it up!

Thanks.

I'll keep it up, and I ask everyone to join in taking an active stand on this.

 

Originally Posted by tobyfunk

i want to play online poker for a long time. let's get this figured out

Legislation is out there. We just have to do our part to push it forward.

This all comes down to the suits in DC not getting their cut,,,plain and simple. If the boys running the show in Washington would get off their asses and pass some legislation to just regulate and tax the money transactions that take place between online gambling sites and players, things would be more stable and legit. If the IRS can come up with a way to file your taxes online, it shouldn't be that difficult or take that long to set something up where we wouldn't have to put up with this bs.

Awesome thread Engineer. I'll do my part.

obv I support the initiative, and bought PPA membership in the past (probably need to renew), but... is there any real progress being made? I mean, Obama certainly hasn't indicated that he will be a catalyst to any propagation... so we have Barney and some ancillary reps talking it up... but is there really any evidence that progress is occurring?

and ty for your efforts btw...

Just wait until your bank account gets frozen. Then your story will change.

 

Originally Posted by resilient

obv I support the initiative, and bought PPA membership in the past (probably need to renew), but... is there any real progress being made? I mean, Obama certainly hasn't indicated that he will be a catalyst to any propagation... so we have Barney and some ancillary reps talking it up... but is there really any evidence that progress is occurring?

and ty for your efforts btw...

UIGEA passed three years ago. We lost the House vote by a lopsided 317-93 (that was a stand-alone bill that was worse than UIGEA, as mentioned earlier). So, we started off with a very weak hand, so to speak. There is no way to achieve a quick turnaround from a vote that lopsided. I never understood why some thought it could be turned around in short order.

Since UIGEA passed, we've won a lot simply by staying on offense, keeping our opponents on defense. We delayed the UIGEA regs, successfully fought for our rights in several states, including victories in courtrooms through which we got rulings that poker is a lawful game of skill. We've gotten our side out into the media as well. So, we've won quite a bit already.

Going forward, PPA will stay active in both legislation and litigation. Harrah's supports our position now, so that will help us push legislation. Most importantly, voters like you and me can stand strong for our rights.

I cannot guarantee victory, but I can promise that standing strong will yield a better result than not taking a stand.

Letters sent. Purchased premium membership. Will make some phone calls on Monday. We do have a real opportunity here to do something about this -- spend the 10 minutes of your time it will take and you'll have many more years to be happy you did.

 

Originally Posted by adamsapple19

Awesome thread Engineer. I'll do my part.

Thanks for posting your commitment! If every poker player in America stood up for their rights, UIGEA would not have passed in the first place. If enough of of us stand up now, we can win this.

Already a member of PPA but not nearly active enough will send letters today and call Congressman on Monday. Thanks for all of your efforts they are greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all of you who are joining and writing letters. They really do make a difference, and as TE has said, if we can get all or nearly all poker players to stand up for their rights, we will win this battle.

To give you some examples, let me tell you about 2 situations. Last year in Mass. the Governor proposed a casino bill that included a provision making playing online poker a crime (a felony even!). The Local PPA and the national PPA got together and launched a very vocal opposition campaign. Ultimately the bill was defeated by a close margin. Poker player opposition was well recognized as a big part of that result, so much so that when new bills regarding casinos and"racinos" were introduced this year which included similar language against online poker, all the PPA had to do was contact the sponsors and they said "oops" and immediately took that language out of their bills.

Just recently, Minnesota authorities sent a letter to ISPs demanding that they block access to internet poker sites. The PPA sent out alerts to its members (and its lawyers) and raised a huge outcry. That public outcry was well heard, and the Minnesota authorities acknowledged that they had no idea online poker had so much support. They further acknowledged that that public outcry was the single biggest factor in their decision to drop the whole thing and withdraw their letter to the ISPs.

Your voice does make a difference. Keep up the good work.

Skallagrim

I really hope the fact that Obama plays poker will help us out on this one. I'm sure the president understands that poker is a game of skill and it doesn't belong in the same catagory as BJ, Roulette, Craps, and slot machines. We play against people not machines or casinos. Obama understands that, I hope. Fuck the feds they just don't want us making all this money without them getting a huge chunk. FUCK THE FEDS!