Here is the text of the letter. To view a pdf of the letter, click here.

The effectiveness of any law is reliant on sound implementation. Federal regulations are intended to provide clarity and guidance for those subjected to their reach. The value of such regulations is to prevent non-compliance while minimizing wasted effort, time, and cost by those being regulated. Clear rules also promote interstate commerce by facilitating uniform enforcement.

In this spirit, your agencies have an opportunity to provide additional guidance in the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of2006 (UIGEA). While the October Notice of Proposed Rulemaking contains certain guidance for the regulated community, it leaves sufficient ambiguity as to what sort of transactions are to be blocked. In failing to provide more detail, the proposed rules would inordinately burden every bank, credit union, credit card company, money transmitting business and payment system in the country, leading to non-uniform compliance and confusion. This issue is particularly important, as most federal and state gambling laws predate the Internet, and are less than specific as to their application to particular practices or circumstances.

The extensive public comments received on this issue highlight the likelihood that risk-averse financial institutions will simply choose to block every transaction that may be interpreted or could resemble gambling, whether legal or not. Knowing that this is not your intention, we write to urge that any final rules contain a list of restricted transactions and instances that are covered by the law and the corresponding rules.

As an alternative, we suggest you consider separating the rules into those forms of activities for which there is settled federal law (i.e., defined by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA)) and those that are not. This would allow immediate implementation for known activities, while providing greater time to determine what other transactions are to be captured.

We thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Sen. John E. Sununu [R-NH]

Sen. Pete Domenici [R-NM]

David Bischoff thinks he got a raw deal last year when state gambling regulators raided his bowling alley, shut down his weekly Texas Hold’em poker tournament and confiscated his cards and chips.

For months afterward, the threat of criminal charges hung over Bischoff – and his card tables sat vacant – until prosecutors concluded that Minnesota’s laws against poker were too vague to enforce.

Minnesota is now one of several states in which legislators are looking to rewrite their laws to strengthen their hand against card games at a time when poker is becoming an all-out craze.

“These are just people who have been watching poker on TV and they want to come out and play and be like the people on TV,” said Bischoff, whose tournaments are up and running again. “It’s not about spending money and winning money. It’s just about the competition and seeing who can be the best.”

The game at the center of the poker mania is Texas Hold’em, in which players are dealt two cards each and can use five community cards flipped over in the middle of the table to make the best hand.

As the popularity of the game has grown, so have problems for gambling regulators.

In Iowa, a couple of American Legion posts heeded warnings and halted their regular tournaments rather than jeopardize their charitable gaming licenses. A similar concern led a firehouse outside of Pittsburgh to call off its games.

Police in Wyoming started breaking up Texas Hold’em tournaments in bars, and the state’s attorney general advised that the events were probably illegal. In Texas – where the game thrived in smoky back rooms before becoming a hit on cable TV – prosecutors are questioning whether bars are improperly profiting from tournaments.

“The popularity of the poker shows has created a whole new beast for us as far as regulations,” said David Werning of Iowa’s Department of Inspections and Appeals.

Click here to go to the article and read more.

In January, the Poker Players Alliance, the online poker industry’s main lobbying arm in Washington, D.C., sent an e-mail to its membership calling on individuals to step up and become a State Director. The newsletter, authored by PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, summed up why the State Directors program was so important: “I can tell you from my own political experience that there is no more important mission for the PPA than to have a strong, vocal and coordinated grassroots effort. With 2008 being a major election year, it is even more pressing that the PPA become a player in the key battleground states and districts.” Flash forward to February, when the State Directors program is officially taking shape. PocketFives.com sat down with PPA Executive Director John Pappas to learn more about this critical campaign.

Pappas was blown away by the response the PPA received from members willing and able to step up and take on a more active role: “The deadline for State Director applications closed at the end of January. We thought we’d receive around 400 applications and ended up getting over 1,000. We’ve been trying to sort through those and hope to place everyone soon. We’ll start contacting people with follow ups shortly. We would have liked to have already notified people by now, but due to the volume, it hasn’t happened yet.”

Receiving three times the number of expected applications is quite a feat, even for an organization that weighs in at 930,000 members. Pappas comments on the overwhelming response: “There’s a real interest by our members to be more active. We hear from people a lot who say they want to be more active in the cause. The State Directors are going to get special access to the PPA’s resources and special incentives in our organization, so these are people who are interested in doing more than the average citizen.”

So what will these new recruits be doing? They’ll be the PPA’s “men in the field” on the state level, exposing new people to the organization and expanding membership. They’ll serve as media liaisons to local outlets and organize events. The responsibilities they are charged with are not small in scope, so the PPA sought out members with political backgrounds. Pappas explains, “We have a good mix of college students, a lot of attorneys, and really what we were looking for were people with grassroots campaign experience. Many have worked on political campaigns. One applicant led a community group who stopped a prison from being built in his neighborhood. Those were the type of people we were really interested in. The pool was a vast spectrum of people, just like the poker community is. There were men, women, young, and old who responded. We’ll have a good mix in every state.”

If you’re reading about the State Directors program for the first time, you may find yourself wanting to get involved as well. Although the Directors themselves have been assigned, special committees will be formed at the state level for those who are interested. To sum up Pappas’ thoughts, “We’re not going to run anyone away from being involved whether we give them the title of State Director or not. The other applicants from that state would be ideal for committees.”

Each State Director’s arsenal will include a PPA-registered e-mail address, access to a special home page for their state (which essentially becomes ground zero for state information), support and training by the PPA’s star-studded staff and board members, and the ability to e-mail all PPA members in their states with a click of a button.

Last August, the PPA launched an initiative called the August Advocate program, which was designed to mobilize the PPA army while Congressmen were in their home districts for the August recess. Pappas compares the State Directors program to the August Advocates: “The organization has grown since then. The August Advocate program was a one month campaign that was specific to the Congressional August recess. We were engaging our membership to go to meetings and events and write and call the district offices. Our members attended a large number of meetings and our Advocates found success raising the issues at certain events. We’ll likely do something similar this year.”

The success of both the membership numbers of the PPA and the State Directors program bodes well for the online poker legislation currently awaiting its turn in Congress.

Click here to go to the article.

In 2006, Congress effectively put a stop to the booming online poker industry. But now, a group of motivated online poker players, and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, are looking at exploiting a loophole in the federal law that could bring online poker back to California.

Levine’s bill, AB2026, would order a study on the federal law that banned Internet poker, and would explore whether a California-only online poker service might be legal. If it is, the state would be able to regulate the online games and presumably get a cut of the online action.

“Our understanding of the law is that so long as the player and server (hosting the online game) are in California, it would be legal,” said Levine. “But that’s what we are trying to find out.”

The bill is sponsored by a group called the Poker Players of America. According to its Web site, the group describes itself as “American as apple pie — free Americans joining together to fight for their right to play the All-American game of poker!”

“Founded and guided by experienced political professionals who also play poker, PPOA has been created to provide information, mobilization and coordination of legislative/political action programs necessary to make the voices of America’s millions of poker players heard.”

The federal government used its power to regulate interstate commerce to crack down on Internet poker in 2006. The feds decided to target credit card companies, restricting their ability to do business with online poker centers, many of which are not based on American soil.

Proponents of the crackdown said online gaming provided a convenient front for money-laundering while preying on children and gambling addicts. At the time the ban was adopted, it was estimated that 23 million poker players were among the Americans who bet $6 billion per year online, accounting for half the worldwide market, according to analysis by the Congressional Research Service.

The crackdown has had an impact on the growing poker boom, both on and off-line. In 2006, the main event at the World Series of Poker had more than 8,700 participants. A year later, after the Internet ban took effect, that number dropped to 6,358, reducing the grand prize of the tournament from $12 million to $8 million.

Sponsors of the event blamed Congress for the drop in attendance. Much of the world series boom had been fueled by online Internet players, who bought in to cheaper tournaments for a chance at winning a seat in the world series, which retails for $10,000. In 2007, the casino hosting the 2007 main event did not allow online poker Web sites to purchase main event seats to offer as prizes for online tournaments.

Levine said that if there is a California-only solution, online gamers might have to acquire a “GPS add-on” that will ensure that gamblers truly are located in California.

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Join the PPA Litigation Support Network

If you are an attorney and interested in being included in the PPA Litigation Support Network. Please click the link below to submit your information.

PPA Litigation Support Network Application

What is the PPA Litigation Support Network?
The PPA maintains a list of local attorneys who have familiarity and experience with gaming laws. We provide this list to members in need of legal assistance.

Library:

Fantasy Sports: A Game Of Skill That Is Implicitly Legal Under State Law, And Now Explicitly Legal Under Federal Law (Jon Boswell, 1/29/08)

Poker Is Good For You (David Sklansky & Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D., 09/07)

Harvard Ponders Just What It Takes To Excel at Poker: Prof. Nesson and Others Stress the Skill Involved; Why It’s a Legal Issue (Wall Street Journal, 05/03/07)

Poker vs. The Law: Should Internet Gambling Be Illegal? (William M. Grady, 2007)

Poker Superstars: Skill or Luck? (Peter Fishman and Devin G. Pope, 12/04/06)

Poker Flops under New York Law (Bennett M. Liebman, 11/1/06)

Poker: Public Policy, Law, Mathematics and The Future of an American Tradition (Anthony Cabot, Robert Hannum, 2006)

Reconsidering Regulation: A Historical View Of The Legality Of Internet Poker And Discussion Of The Internet Gambling Ban Of 2006 (Christopher Grohman, 2006)

Can playing poker be good for you? Poker as a transferable skill (Adrian Parke, Mark Griffiths, Jonathan Parke, 09/12/05)

Game Theory and Poker (Jason Swanson, 04/03/05)

Heads-Up Face-Off: On Style and Skill in the Game of Poker (Kevin Burns, 09/23/04)

Mark Twain on Science vs. Luck (George Epstein)

Poker IS Science; Algorithm is Proof (George Epstein)

Poker Players Alliance is proud to be a sponsor in Alaska Poker Association’s “Bad Beat on Cancer” Event on Feb.24th.

“We are excited about Phil and Rafe coming to Alaska. This will be the first time
any professional poker players have hosted any events here. We have invited the
Mayor and other officials to join us at a “celebrity” table. I believe that
events like this really help promote poker in a good way.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Two Westmoreland County men are accused of organizing three illegal Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments last year at the social club for the Fort Allen Volunteer Fire Department in Hempfield.

Ronald Boggs, 60, of 123 Troy Circle, Hempfield, and James Earl Miller, 35, of 205 Oak St., New Stanton, are charged each with nine first-degree misdemeanor violations of the state’s gambling devices statute and three misdemeanor counts of conspiracy.

A state police investigation led to an Aug. 3 raid in which authorities said they seized $1,875 in cash and gambling paraphernalia, including playing cards and poker chips.

State Trooper Michael Noel said in an affidavit of probable cause that he attended tournaments that night and on May 25 and June 1 after reading an advertisement in the Tribune-Review stating the Friday night events were managed by and benefited the fire department.

Trustees for the Fort Allen Firemens Club were not immediately available for comment Tuesday about whether the fire company or social hall benefited from the tournaments.

Noel said participants paid a $50 entry fee for a set of playing chips and access to a buffet dinner and drinks.

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The trade dispute between the United States and several countries in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean over Internet gambling has been embarrassing, expensive and now, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, a national security secret.

At least that’s what Ed Brayton, a freelance writer who opposes the government’s anti-gambling measures, found when he tried to get a copy of the agreement the United States has reached with the European Union, Japan and Canada on the issue. The accord spells out what trade concessions the United States is making to compensate those countries for U.S. laws and regulations that try to prevent Americans from wagering on foreign gambling Web sites. The latest law, enacted in 2006, prohibits U.S. banks and other financial institutions from processing any Internet gambling transactions.

Antigua and Barbuda, a former British colony in the Caribbean, touched off the dispute in 2003 when it brought a case to the World Trade Organization arguing that the United States’ efforts against gambling on foreign Web sites were an unfair trade practice because it exempted domestic horse racing Web sites. The WTO sided with the tiny Caribbean nation, which has yet to reach an agreement with the United States on compensation.

Other countries have, though, and Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the deal was announced in December. He says he just wanted to know precisely how much the United States was conceding in the December deal to maintain its gambling ban. The agency’s chief FOIA officer, Carmen Suro-Bredie, replied that the USTR was withholding the agreement because it was “classified in the interest of national security.”

In announcing the agreement with the EU, Japan and Canada, USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said it “involves commitments to maintain our liberalized markets for warehousing services, technical testing services, research and development services and postal services relating to outbound international letters.”

She did not respond to requests for more information about the deal.

Brayton says he’s planning to appeal the denial, which would force the trade office to explain why the agreement implicates national security. He says he suspects the agency may have something else in mind: hiding what could amount to billions of dollars in trade concessions.

“I can’t even imagine a reasonable explanation other than that in the furthest reaches of my imagination,” he says.

A bill passed by a state Senate subcommittee would allow churches and other non-profit groups to raise money through gambling. The bill says state laws against gambling would not apply to non-profit organizations that organize games with cards or dice when the activity is being done for fundraising and is of “limited duration”.

The bill passed in subcommittee Thursday and now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. McConnell is also the sponsor of the gambling bill.

The South Carolina Baptist Convention fought against video poker and the creation of the state lottery, so you can imagine how it feels about allowing gambling within churches. Joe Mack, director of the Convention’s Office of Public Policy Issues, says the bill “would be a huge expansion of gambling.”

He says it’s being portrayed as something a few non-profit groups might do occasionally. “But I think it’s a slippery slope,” he says. “Once you open the door, we don’t know where it will end up, just like we did not with video poker.”

At the subcommittee meeting, no one spoke in favor of the bill. Mason Hardy, president of the South Carolina Association of Non-Profit Organizations, did speak, but his group is not taking a stand yet for or against the bill.

Click here to go to the article and read more.

The Poker Players Alliance, the grassroots lobbying organization that is the voice of poker players in Washington D.C., has become a significant force in the halls of political power in the nation’s capital and is only going to expand their presence in 2008, according to Executive Director John Pappas.

“2007 was certainly a huge year for us,” Pappas, who took over the day-to-day leadership of the organization in the latter part of 2007, said in a conversation with PokerListings.com. “Our membership ranks swelled to almost 800,000 and we were able to get a surprising level of support from members of the House of Representatives.”

Pappas indicated the Congressional support the organization received was significant.

“We’re not talking about freshman members of Congress here,” he said. “When you have such people as veteran House members Barney Frank and Robert Wexler garnering support for their bills, you know there is support for the poker community.”

Another important step for the cause was when former Senator Alfonse D’Amato agreed to become the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

“It was a huge coup for us, with his knowledge of the Congressional system and his love for the game of poker, and we couldn’t ask for a better person to represent our group,” Pappas said.

As the new year (and an election year) has begun, Pappas has a distinct idea as to how the PPA will enter into 2008.

“First off, we want to continue to add to our membership. We are near one million members now, and there doesn’t seem to be a plateau,” Pappas said. “If there are a million supporters for the game of poker, why not 1.5 million?”

The organization is also continuing its efforts to get State Directors for every state, according to Pappas.

“In January, we sent out an e-mail to see which members might be interested in working for the PPA’s efforts in each state,” he said. “We expected maybe three to four hundred responses and got over 1,000! These State Directors are going to be at the forefront of many of our efforts across the U. S., from recruitment to legislative efforts.”

Those efforts will also include focusing on the Congressional races taking place this year and trying to motivate the PPA’s membership to get involved in the elections, Pappas said.

“We also have aggressive plans for continuing our work on Capitol Hill,” he said. “We are working heavily on fine tuning Rep. Frank’s bill (which calls for an overturning of the UIGEA, signed into law in 2006, and regulation of the industry) and we have continued interest in Rep. Wexler’s efforts. We are also supporting Rep. Shelly Berkley’s continued drive for a study into the proper action of the United States regarding online gaming.”

When asked about the issues that face these different pieces of legislation, Pappas admitted that they have to earn support in the other branch of Congress.

“While we have excellent support in the House of Representatives, we need to earn some support from members of the Senate and find sponsors there to support the bills on the record,” he said.

When it comes to the World Series of Poker, Pappas envisions a very prominent role for the PPA’s efforts there come June.

“We want to have a booth presence there at the event, but we want to go a bit further than we have before,” Pappas said. “While we want to increase our membership, we also want to provide the ability for poker players to register to vote. We want to provide the poker community with the ability to contact their representatives through an electronic mail drive as well. We also have other ideas we’re working on, so stay tuned!”

One of the most important issue on Pappas’ and the PPA’s mind, though, is that the industry needs regulation rather than prohibition.

“Some of the events in the online world last year clearly demonstrated that a regulated industry is the best avenue,” Pappas said. “It’s not a question of if it will happen; it is only a question of when it will occur. It’s a political impossibility to ignore the realities, that we need a regulated industry to protect the players and the game itself.”

Click here to go to the article.