Online Poker Players and the PPA Fight Against UIGEA Legislation

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the looming UIGEA legislation, and the ramifications for the online poker world. And, while there has been no request for a further extension -and none seems to be forthcoming-there are a couple of grassroots movements being pushed by the Poker Players Alliance, and the online poker community as a whole, to fight for your right to play online poker.

The PPA has sent a petition to both the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to clarify the UIGEA legislation, making a distinction between ‘Peer-to-Peer’ betting games and gambling games. The petition carries with it the signatures off 22 Democratic members of Congress; however there is a significant name missing from the petition, Barney Frank, who is perhaps online poker’s biggest supporter in Washington DC. Frank recently told Poker News that the implementation of UIGEA may prove to be its downfall; his thinking is that the law will prove flawed and will then be repealed.

Read the petition sent to the Treasury and the Fed

Read the PPA Letter

The PPA’s stance is that because of the vague language of what constitutes an “illegal gaming transaction” banks will choose to over-regulate to insure they fall within the parameters of the law, especially since there is no penalty for disallowing legal transactions.

As I said, it’s unlikely that a second extension will be granted: Barney Frank told Poker News in March that Secretary Geithner had cut a backroom deal with Sen. John Kyl to not delay UIGEA regulations in exchange for Kyl not delaying Treasury nominees. This claim was later corroborated by the Washington Post. Therefore the PPA has taken another angle in its battle against the law by seeking a clarification that would remove online poker from the list of “illegal” games.

Congress has just scheduled a hearing for May 19^th, to further discuss the possibilities and options of online gaming, so keep calling your representatives and urging them to take a hard look at the data, and the benefits of legalizing and regulating the online poker industry.

At the same time, the online poker community has been lighting up the major poker forums and poker blogs rallying as many people as possible to take part in a mass protest of UIGEA legislation by playing online poker on the day it is enacted.

I urge anyone with an online poker account to log on June 1^st and make their voice heard by showing just how pervasive online poker is in American Culture, and around the world. While the protest may fall on deaf ears, down the road the data showing just how many people partake in online poker will be a terrific piece of data for proponents of legalizing online gambling to point to.