Poker Articles

No matter how good the game is, no matter how many fish are at your favorite table, and no matter how close you are to getting a spot on the leader board, on November 4th you need to get up out of that chair for a minute and go vote. Maybe even encourage a few friends to vote. This election will decide the future of online poker and we need to take part in it or we may see our favorite game under attack once again.

For online poker players, this is far and away the most important election of our lifetimes, and if we show up in huge numbers to vote for candidates that will protect our personal freedoms and allow us to play the game we love, we can make a change. Not only can we put in candidates who will be more likely to support our right to play poker, but we can show every politician in America how strongly we feel and how many of us actually vote.

This is our best chance to flex our collective muscles and reap the benefits for years to come. If the politicians know there are millions of us, and our votes are strongly influenced by this issue, they won’t want to take that freedom away for fear that they could be voted out of office the next time around. If we don’t get out and vote in huge numbers, all of our petitions and lobbying will be in vain. If we aren’t an actual threat to their jobs, politicians won’t consider us at all.

I’m not trying to tell anyone how to vote in the presidential election and honestly either candidate will probably be much better for poker players than the current administration. I do think you should vote for the few people on Capitol Hill who have stood up for us, including Barney Frank in Massachusetts, Linda Sanchez in California, Robert Wexler in Florida, John Conyers from Michigan, Shelley Berkley in Nevada, Robert Menendez in New Jersey, Peter King of New York, Melvin Watt of North Carolina, Stephen Cohen in Tennessee, Ron Paul and Pete Sessions in Texas, Robert Scott in Virginia, and Jim McDermott in Washington State, where poker desperately needs help.

The preceding list is not all from one political party or one part of the country. They are just good lawmakers who have listened to the American people, 75% of whom are against a ban of online poker. Politicians who realize that what you do in the privacy of your own home is none of the government’s business and that the majority of Americans want that freedom left alone.

It’s just my opinion, but I think that any politician who can’t follow the people’s will or who wants to prevent me from playing poker in my own home shouldn’t get our vote no matter what else they claim to stand for because they simply can not be trusted.

I urge you all to visit the PPA’s Congressional ratings page and take a look at how your incumbents scored on the PPA’s grading system. If they don’t get a B+ grade or better, take a look at their challenger and consider voting for them instead if they appear to be a candidate who supports personal liberty. And make sure to send that link to some friends and family so they can see how their representatives score on this important issue of personal freedom too.

I’ve already contacted a Congressional member in my district, who represents the party I usually vote for, and told them that they will not be getting my vote this time around because of their record of voting against online poker. I know it’s not the only issue on your mind. We have a war overseas and a terrible economic crisis to deal with. Those things are important issues, but poker, and the freedom to play it, may be more important then you think. Consider the following:

Online poker has been rocked by two recent cheating scandals and there is very little that any regulatory body can do about it. In an unregulated industry, where the companies are not operating as licensed U.S. businesses, they have little reason to treat U.S. players well. Are you really going to go to The Isle of Mann or Costa Rica to file a court case against them? If online poker in the U.S. were legal and properly regulated, the games would be safer and more secure than they can ever be with the situation as it is now.

Prohibition leads to crime. We should have learned that lesson with alcohol 80 years ago, but politicians have short memories. We have no idea where those profits go right now, and in an unregulated environment that money could end up anywhere.

Online poker makes incredible quantities of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in rake that could be generating tax revenue for us is being sent overseas. We are sending a massive business overseas and not allowing American companies to compete for that income at a time when our economy can use all the help it can get. And let’s not forget the players who make money. Playing online poker professionally is a career for many of us (including yours truly) and if online poker is criminalized, those jobs, and all that tax income, will be literally shipped overseas. Can you vote for a politician who wants to ship thousands of high-paying jobs overseas?

Allowing the government to tell us what we can and can not do in our own homes is a slippery slope. What’s next? If you give the government an inch, it may just take a mile as it has often done in the past.

Many of online poker’s opponents say that they are trying to prevent people with gambling problems from playing the games. I feel for those people, but if we want to protect our citizens, let’s protect the minors by regulating the games so that they can’t play. Let’s protect the people who are playing the games anyway by regulating them and keeping them safe. There are carve-outs in the anti-online gambling laws that specifically allow horse racing and lotteries, offering no protection for problem gamblers, and the current laws aren’t preventing the criminals and addicts from playing poker any way.

I’ve seen poker do good things too many times to let it die. I played in a charity tournament myself a few months ago that raised over $70,000 for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and there are charity tournaments every weekend on all the major sites for one charity or another. With legal online poker, these tournaments could draw so many more people and do so much good for the world.

The idea that our government could put us in jail for playing a game would be ridiculous if it weren’t already happening. Shame on Washington State for putting its citizens in jail and claiming that it is trying to protect them from playing online poker. Do you think your citizens are unable to make decisions for themselves? As they clear out their offices for the newly elected officials to move in, they may feel differently about how well the citizens of their State are able to make decisions on their own.

The next Congress will decide the future of online poker, and if you don’t get up from that computer and go vote, you get to play for a few hours on election day, but you might never get to play again soon after.

I spoke recently with John Pappas, the head of our most powerful ally in Washington, the Poker Player’s Alliance. I’ll end this article with a quote from John himself –

“The new Congress and White House will make important decisions about the future of Internet poker. If you care about your freedom to play, then you have to educate yourself and you have to vote on November 4th. We need to make sure that lawmakers don’t continue to take our rights for granted. If a politician is willing to come into your home and take away your right to play poker, they won’t stop there. What right will they take away next? Selecting the right candidate for poker also means selecting a candidate who cares about your personal freedoms.”

I’ll see you at the voting booth,

Chris ‘Fox’ Wallace

Check out Fox's new online magazine, Blind Straddle. He's roped up some of the top online poker minds for this virtual magazine.

* Chris Fox Wallace has been a PocketFives.com Contributing Writer since 2005.

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