No doubt they’d rather be in Vegas holding a pair of aces and waiting on the flop in a game of Texas Hold ‘Em.

But some of the country’s top professional poker players are in Washington this week doing a different kind of gambling – trying to convince lawmakers to buy in on some changes to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (PL 109-347), which bars online wagering on poker and other games.

Aside from seeing the Internet gambling industry “decriminalized,” they’d also like to have poker declared a game of skill instead of chance, as some in Congress view it now.

“A game like poker, it truly is a game of skill that should have been exempted [from the Internet gambling law],” said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance.

Pappas led a group of top poker players – Chris Moneymaker, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, Andy Bloch, Vanessa Rousso, Chad Brown and Victor Ramdin – on a lobbying tour of Capitol Hill on Tuesday. They’re pushing for passage of two bills. One (HR 2610) by Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., would amend the law to define poker as a game of skill. The other (HR 2046), written by Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., would regulate online gambling by licensing Internet companies to accept wagers.

One of the tricks to being a good poker player, though, is to accept reality. And the reality right now is that neither bill is likely to pass. “It is the ultimate game of poker we’re playing,” Pappas said. “We’re in an uphill climb.”

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Author Contact Info: Greg McDonald, CQ TODAY