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You are in: Home / Poker Blog Post / A Million Strong

A Million Strong

2008-04-23 18:05:11
By: Gene Bromberg

Earlier this week the Poker Players Alliance announced that its membership had crossed the one million mark. With apologies to Dr. Evil, that's one million poker players who have linked arms and formed a formidable grass-roots organization dedicated to protecting the rights of Americans to play poker. That such an organization needs to exist gives you an idea of the sad times we live it--the fact that it's membership so quickly reached the one million mark gives one hope that the times, they are a-changin'.

Albeit slowly. A full repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) seems a ways away, certainly not until after the 2008 elections. There has been some back-and-forth in Congress, as a number of U.S. Representatives--including Barney Frank, Ron Paul, Luis Gutierrez, and Peter King-- wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking that federal regulators stop trying to establish rules for enforcing the UIGEA because the law itself is unenforceable. Banks and other financial institutions so far have shown no enthusiasm about policing what their customers do with their money, and its not like the Treasury Department doesn't have other fish to fry. From the letter:

While its almost certain that nothing positive will happen until the next election, it's good to see that our allies in Congress aren't sitting on their hands. And it's also good to see that the PPA, in its infinite wisdom, decided to include UltimateBet's Annie Duke as an honorary member of it's PokerPAC, the PPA's political action committee that will lobby members of Congress. Anyone who saw Annie's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee is very, very glad of that.

The tide is turning. Still a lot of work to be done, and now is not the time to grow impatient. But the tide is turning.


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