Wednesday, July 6, 2011 marked the first ever White House-Twitter town hall in which the President answered questions in real time from Twitter users across the country. The Issues discussed ranged from the state of the economy and reducing unemployment levels to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the President ignored the thousands of Tweets from PPA members asking him if he supports the licensing and regulation of online poker. We believe Mr. Obama could have clarified his stance on our issue in 140 characters or less and, by not doing so, he missed a great opportunity to solidify his poker constituents.
On Sunday, July 10, 2011 our Utah State Director Donna Lawton will be interviewed by Top Pair, Home Game Pokercasts about the current state of online poker legislation and other poker related topics. To listen to her podcast, tune in on July 10th at this
I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, looking forward to meeting many of my fellow poker players at the PPA WSOP booth. It has been an exciting trip!
I have enjoyed meeting many of you here and having the chance to discuss face-to-face the opportunities we now have on the Hill with the introduction of Congressman Joe Barton’s (R-TX) Online Poker Act, the ongoing saga with getting paid back by the sites that have yet to refund U.S. players’ balances, the impact of former Gov. Gary Johnson’s support for our right to play on the presidential race, and the many other questions and concerns of the poker community.
If you are in Las Vegas, please stop by the PPA booth this weekend and introduce yourself. I hope to meet lots of poker players and enthusiasts in person while here!
In the mean time, you all received a detailed alert from the PPA last week with specific steps you can take to support this important bill. It is at
www.theppa.org/takeaction. I ask that we all participate in these actions to stand up for the game. If we each do our part, the sum of our efforts will maximize our chances at ultimate victory.
Every letter we send to Congress tells our lawmakers that we care about this issue. Every phone call we make to Congress tells them we really care about our rights as poker players and enthusiasts. It is up to each of us to tell Congress what we demand. No one else will do it for us, so please visit the PPA Take Action Page and take action today!
Member Questions
I regularly communicate directly with players on several online forums under my online handle “TheEngineer” and via phone and
email. Since taking this role on June 1st, I have received a few hundred emails and have responded to all of them. I received several phone calls and IMs as well. The top issue this week was:
Why is PPA endorsing former Gov. Johnson for President?
PPA has not formally endorsed former Gov. Gary Johnson’s candidacy. Rather, he has expressed public support for our position, so we are gladly sharing this much-welcomed and much-appreciated support with the poker community. We will do the same for every national presidential candidate who publicly supports our poker rights. The poker community benefits every time a political candidate publicly supports the right to play.
Governor Johnson’s support is paying dividends to the poker community, as we are already getting the coverage we seek:
Politico New Mexico Independent CNN Talking Points Memo NY Mag The Atlantic Gather I thank you all for your continued support in this fight for our rights as poker enthusiasts and as Americans!
Proud to play,
Rich Muny
The PPA wishes to keep active members like yourself updated on the latest poker advocacy news by periodically sending out select events and headlines. We hope you find it informative and thank you for your continuing support.
