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Weekly Update from Rich Muny, VP of Player Relations
PPA has just released the 2012 PPA Member of Congress Ratings Guide. This guide rates each member of Congress on their support for the game of poker, based on votes and co-sponsorship of legislation, outreach to colleagues, letters to constituents, public statements, feedback from PPA lobbyists, and feedback from meetings with poker players and enthusiasts. I encourage everyone to check this out, at www.theppa.org/congress.
In addition to the ratings, this newly designed segment of the PPA website contains many great advocacy features. We can send lawmakers emails and pro-poker tweets directly from the guide. We can make use of the guide’s links to lawmakers’ Facebook walls, allowing us quick and easy posting of pro-poker statements. We can even review correspondence sent by lawmakers on the issue of poker to constituents directly. And, if you have a letter from your lawmaker that PPA does not have, the site has a feature through which you can submit it directly to PPA.
PPA Executive Director John Pappas had the following to say about the guide:
In the past four years, the PPA has more than doubled the number of members of Congress who have a rating, even with a turnover of almost 100 Freshman Senators and Representatives at the start of the 112th Congress. The education and advocacy efforts of the PPA are clearly having an impact. Just six years ago, two-thirds of the U.S. House voted to prohibit online poker.
Today, the vocal opponents of online poker in the Congress are approaching extinction. In fact, even some who voted in favor of the 2006 prohibition are the most ardent supporters of a regulated market place that gives adult Americans the freedom to play poker online. But the fight is not over. We must continue to advocate for Congress to pass common sense federal legislation to protect the freedoms of millions of Americans who enjoy this great American game.
I wish to thank Director of Membership and PokerPAC Bryan Spadaro for putting this guide together, PPA IT Manager Randy Lau for the technical work and layout design, and my terrific Skype advocacy group for the rigorous beta testing.
The guide is searchable by state and ZIP code, and will be updated periodically. We at PPA hope this guide will serve as a useful resource for the community on Election Day and beyond!
2012 U.S. Online Poker Survey
The ratings guide release coincided with the unveiling of the results of the 2012 U.S. Online Poker Survey. The survey, conducted by U.S. Gaming Survey and commissioned by the PPA, found that in every swing state and “election fringe state,” respondents overwhelmingly stated that they would be willing to vote against their registered party if the other candidate supported online poker and their party’s candidate did not.
For example, in Ohio and North Carolina, two battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, 60 percent of respondents said they would change their vote. That number rose to 66 percent in Florida, a swing state that was pivotal in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Fully three-quarters (75 percent) of all respondents indicated that their votes for the House and the Senate would be influenced by stated support for licensed online poker. The survey also demonstrated that the poker playing community is essentially bipartisan, with a nearly even split between Republican and Democratic respondents.
Poker players and enthusiasts have made a real impact on elections. We turned Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA), sponsor of numerous anti-poker bills, out of office in 2006 following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act – a fact he readily concedes. He repeated his laughable mantra “click your mouse, lose your house” many times during that election. We replied, “don’t let me click my mouse, lose your seat in the House!” For what it’s worth, his Black Tuesday came a half-decade before our Black Friday.
We also had a great impact in the 2010 Colorado Senate election. Outreach by the PPA to the Colorado poker community played a key role in Senator Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) narrow victory in his re-election bid against anti-poker candidate Ken Buck.
I encourage everyone to check out the summary of the survey results at http://www.usgamingsurvey.com/online-poker-political-alliance.html.
Gov. Gary Johnson’s Return to the Poker Advocacy Webcast
As I mentioned last week, Libertarian nominee former Gov. Gary Johnson, the only pro-poker candidate in this year’s presidential race, has actively reached out to the poker community. Last year, he met with many poker players at the PPA World Series of Poker® booth.
Gov. Johnson returned to my webcast, Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny, on Monday evening. The interview was followed by post-interview analysis with 2004 WSOP Champion & PPA Board Member Greg “FossilMan” Raymer! If you missed the initial webcast airing, I encourage you to check it out here or via the iTunes download here.
Interviews
Upcoming Appearances:
- The Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny webcast airs live each Monday, at 8 pm ET, on OnTilt Radio (listen live here). I am airing encore episodes for the next two weeks, returning live on October 1st. You can follow the program on Facebook at facebook.com/PokerAdvocacy, and on Twitter at @PokerAdvocacy. The show site is ontiltradio.com/ppa.
- Webcast: “PPA Weekly Update” airs live each Tuesday at 9:45 pm ET on Fifth Street Radio (listen live here.
Recent Appearances:
- The Angel Clark Show: I discussed poker advocacy with host Angel Clark. (9/11) (I come on at time point 62:00…listen here)
- OnTilt Radio: “Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny.” I was joined by Libertarian nominee former Gov. Gary Johnson, followed by 2004 WSOP Champion & PPA Board Member Greg “FossilMan” Raymer. (9/10) (listen here or download from iTunes here).
- Fifth Street Radio: I sat down with Mark Hoke for a great discussion. (9/4) (I come on at time point 1:44:25 of Part 1…listen here).
Interview Archives:
- Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny: show site, show archive, free iTunes download
- Fifth Street Radio PPA Weekly Update: site archive, free iTunes download
- Short Stacked Radio — prior PPA Weekly Updates: site archive
Thank you for your continued support!
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.
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