The Poker Players Alliance hopes a hot hand in the nation’s capital this week will help its efforts to legalize online poker.
As part of its “National Poker Week,” the group has set up nearly 100 meetings with members of Congress and their aides, and plans to present a petition to President Barack Obama on Wednesday that had more than 350,000 signatures at last count. Famous poker players such as Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch and Greg Raymer are participating as well.
On Tuesday night, the poker group will host a charity poker tournament, with proceeds going to the USO and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Poker Players Alliance, chaired by former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., gets its money from the Interactive Gaming Council, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based trade association for online casinos, as well as from the alliance’s poker player members.
In 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which aimed to curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers. The law didn’t provide a clear definition of unlawful Internet gambling, instead referring to existing federal and state laws, which themselves provoke differing interpretations.
The Justice Department maintained that Internet gambling was illegal even before that law, a position the poker players challenge. Their goal is to pass legislation that would license and regulate online poker.
On Monday, the players hosted a congressional staff briefing, aimed at showing how online poker can be effectively regulated in the U.S. Staffers from about 20 congressional offices attended the meeting, according to the poker group.
The event had the feel of an infomercial. John Pappas, the poker group’s executive director, asked questions of the panelists that inevitably ended with friendly responses.
“What about children?” asked Pappas. Is it possible, he asked, to…