Work on federal regulations to enforce an Internet gambling ban should stop, four lawmakers said in letters this week to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

“Given the many other priorities that are pending at your agencies, including the mortgage crisis … we believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task,” the lawmakers wrote. Sisyphus was a king in Greek mythology who was condemned to repeatedly roll a huge boulder up a hill only to watch it roll down again.

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Legislators have folded on a bill that would legalize kitchen table poker.

A measure legalizing recreational poker games in homes was sent back to a House panel on Wednesday without debate.
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The deck may still be stacked against online poker enthusiasts, but an advocacy group that represents them is suddenly holding a whole lot of chips.

The Poker Players Alliance is expected to announce Tuesday that it has registered more than one million members and will be organizing both a political action committee and a voter-registration drive as part of its If You Play, Have a Say campaign.
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Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, wants to eliminate the $5 bet limit at Colorado casinos to bring in millions of extra revenue for the state.

His proposed constitutional amendment (Senate Concurrent Resolution released Monday doesn’t specify what the new limit would be or what the extra money would be used for.
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Work on federal regulations to enforce an Internet gambling ban should stop, four lawmakers said in letters this week to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

“Given the many other priorities that are pending at your agencies, including the mortgage crisis … we believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task,” the lawmakers wrote. Sisyphus was a king in Greek mythology who was condemned to repeatedly roll a huge boulder up a hill only to watch it roll down again.
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Organization Launches Voter Registration Program and PAC

Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2008) “ Over one million poker enthusiasts are members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group. The organization, which is committed to protecting the rights of individuals to play poker, announced this significant milestone today as it also launched a voter registration program and its political action committee (PAC).

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Not all gambling is gambling under the law.

Some gambling is considered “social gaming” — legal gambling, if it adheres to certain regulations.

First, the game must take place in a private residence; second, it cannot include house odds, a house player or house bank; and lastly, the house cannot make money on the game.

This is why it is perfectly okay for friends to gather at somebody’s home for poker night or high stakes Yahtzee.

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A bill that would authorize the study of intrastate online poker in
California moved forward yesterday when the Assembly Governmental
Organization Committee (AGOC) unanimously sent the bill forward to the
Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 2026 calls for the California Gambling Control Commission and the
Department of Justice to perform a study on authorizing intrastate
online poker in California. If passed, the study is to be presented to
California Legislature by June 30, 2009.

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Some of them say it’s silly that Monopoly, Go Fish and arcade games are against the law.

And some might even believe it’s a waste of police time to bust penny-ante kitchen-table poker games.

But don’t expect state lawmakers to do anything about it anytime soon. That’s one debate that’s just too controversial to take up in the General Assembly right now.

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When Maine State Police raided the 24-Hour Club on Lincoln Street on Sunday afternoon, they found three tables covered with poker chips and about 30 people playing poker.

What they didn’t find was a tournament games license to hold the card game, Lt. David Bowler, commanding officer for the state police special investigation unit, said Tuesday.

“It was clear they were playing a Texas Hold ‘em tournament or some poker tournament,” he said.

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