If you're a US Congressman, and your party has had 100% control of the levers of power in Washington for five years, your president's approval rating hovers in the low to mid 30s, and your own approval rating is even worse, what do you do when the mid-term elections come up? You pander to your base, of course. You find a scapegoat, jingle your keys, and do whatever it takes to distract the voters from what a complete and miserable failure you are. This week, we got to see this election year strategy in all its hardcore action, as the House voted 317-93 to make almost all online wagering, including playing poker, a crime.The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach (R- Iowa) makes it a federal crime to use a credit card or US-based bank to fund anything deemed "online gambling," with the notable and incredible exception of horse racing and online state lotteries.
Because, you know, gambling is an incredibly dangerous problem, threatening to tear apart the fabric of our society even more than same-sex marriage, or burning the flag, or repealing tax cuts for Paris Hilton and it must be stopped! Except, of course, for horse racing and lotteries; those are totally fine, and, uh, something about terrorists if you disagree with the congress on this one.
While most of us can look at this bill and see it for the transparent pandering that it is, we have to take it seriously. If the Senate passes similar legislation, ISPs could be allowed (or even required) to block access to poker sites (but not horse racing or lottery sites) from within the United States. Even if you don't care about playing online poker, think about how you feel about the government deciding what you can and can't do from the privacy of your own home, and where you can go on the Internets. Do you really want the government making those decisions for you?
There is no bill in the Senate right now, but it could easily be attached to something and we'd see the Repair all the Roads in the Northeast, Give Puppies to kids with Cancer and Ban Online Poker Act of 2006 fly through with no debate in the middle of the night on a voice vote, because that's just the way these jerks roll, you know.
So what do we do? The first thing is to find out if your congressmoron voted in favor of this bill. If it did, you need to write a letter (not e-mail) and tell them that they've lost your vote, and why. Then you need to make a phone call and tell them the same thing, and then you should write letters to the editor for your local papers. Then, join the Poker Players Alliance! They're like the EFF for poker players, and they are our best hope to prevent this ridiculous bill from becoming a law and making criminals out of us all.
The Poker Players Alliance has worked very hard to educate members of congress that poker is a game of skill and shouldn't be lumped in with luck-based games like roulette and keno, and they've made a lot of progress in a very short time with the more intelligent members of congress (yes, there are at least 93 of them.) They've posted a letter in response to the passage of this bill, which you can read at Bill Rini's blog:
"We are disappointed that the House of Representatives would assail the rights of Americans to enjoy the great game of poker on the Internet. It is unconscionable that a skill game like poker gets swept into the net of prohibition, while online horse betting and Internet lotteries get free passes," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance.
For you fence-sitters, Absinthe makes a good case for joining the PPA:
We often talk about poker books as reasonable investment because the information contained therein can help us profit in the future . . . So consider for a moment the number of future big bets you might earn from a successful PPA defense of the right to play online poker:
All of 'em.
1. Why not complain about all Members when you can partisan bash, eh Wil?
Give me a break, both parties bite the big one on this bill. It's not just a Republican thing Wil when 115 Dems cross the aisle to join them. You making it a partisan only makes your personal politics more evident and doesn't help to educate or persuade readers.
If readers are interested in seeing how their Member of Congress voted look here.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll363.xml
Posted at 2:33PM on Jul 12th 2006 by Thomas