“Members of the PPA, and poker players nationwide, are outraged that the Commerce Casino, the largest poker room in the nation, opposes Federal legislation that would protect players’ rights and access to online poker,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA.  “They are angry and want to make their voices heard. The PPA’s ‘Players Before Profits’ campaign gives poker players a vehicle to express their disappointment with Commerce Casino.”

The Commerce Casino’s opposition to federal licensing and regulation is a direct result of its desire to promote California-only licensing and regulation that would create a monopoly market where they are the main provider of online gaming services in the state. At the same time, intra-state licensing legislation means players in California can only play on California sites, with other players in California – severely restricting the both the pool of available players and types of games available to California poker players.

The “Players Before Profits” campaign allows PPA members and all poker players to call, email or tweet the Commerce Casino to express their disappointment and urge the organization to support H.R. 2267.  Additionally, players can add their name to the open letter to Commerce Casino’s owners outlining the concerns of the players.  Federal efforts to regulate Internet gaming has received support from several brick-and-mortar casinos – including those with no vested stake in online poker – and hopes to see others in the community to join the call to encourage Commerce Casino to support poker player rights. 

“The poker community has been fighting tooth and nail for years for a safe, regulated online poker industry in the United States, and it is disheartening to see one of our own turn its back on this effort – and the safety of players – in order to maximize their own profits,” continued Pappas.  “I urge all poker players to contact Commerce Casino and express your disappointment.”

Washington, DC (July 28, 2010) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, today applauded passage of H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, by the House Financial Services Committee.  The bipartisan 41-22 vote demonstrates that sensible regulation of Internet gaming is gaining support in Congress while prohibition continues to fail.   

“The fact is, online poker is not going away. Congress has a choice – it can license and regulate it to provide government oversight and consumer protections, or our lawmakers can stick their heads in the sand, ignore it, and leave consumers to play on non-U.S. regulated websites in all 50 states,” said Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA. “I’m glad the Financial Services Committee today overwhelmingly chose to act and protect Americans as well as preserve the fundamental freedoms of adults and the Internet.”

Sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), H.R. 2267 establishes a robust licensing and regulatory regime for online gaming in the United States, providing much needed oversight on this growing industry in order to protect consumers, children and problem gamblers.  By using the most modern technologies and regulatory authority, this bill goes further than the ineffective Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) to keep children and problem gamblers off these sites, at the same time allowing for strong consumer protections for adult consumers who enjoy this recreational activity.  Additionally, licensing and regulation presents an avenue for companies to return to the U.S., providing the economy with much needed jobs and tax revenue.  The bill was further strengthened by several bipartisan amendments that provide even greater consumer protections and strong enforcement against unlicensed operators, something that the current law (UIGEA) lacks completely.

“We commend the lawmakers who helped make H.R. 2267 stronger through a variety of consumer protection mandates.  In particular, we thank Representatives John Campbell (R-CA), Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), and Melissa Bean (D-IL) for their thoughtful additions to the bill and their interest in preserving the rights of adult poker players in their districts,” said John Pappas, PPA executive director.

While the bill has passed out of Committee, there is still much work to be done and areas of policy in this bill that must still be addressed.  To be clear, despite the concerns of some of our members, nothing in the Committee-passed legislation precludes lawful Internet poker-only operators whom U.S. players know and trust today from the opportunity to operate under a regulated system. The PPA will work with House and Senate lawmakers to ensure that the final legislation produces the best regulated online gaming environment for the consumer.

“This is a great day not only for poker players, but for proponents of Internet freedom and individual liberty,” said D’Amato.  “We thank Chairman Frank for his leadership on this bill, and look forward to working with him to bring this bill through the legislative process.”

Key provisions of the bill include:

• Thorough vetting of potential licensees and creation of an OFAC-style list of illegal operators;
• Mandatory implementation of technologies to protect against underage gambling using the commercial and government databases used for online banking to verify age and identity
• Requirements for operators to set daily, weekly or monthly limits on deposits and losses to monitor and detect individuals with excessive gaming habits;
• High standards to thwart fraud, abuse and cheating to ensure fair games for customers;
• Regulation to prevent money laundering; and,
• Processes to prevent tax avoidance.

About The Poker Players Alliance

The Poker Players Alliance (www.theppa.org)  is a nonprofit membership organization comprised of over 1,000,000 online and offline poker players and enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game and to protect poker players' rights.

1. Go to the PPA shortcut: http://go.theppa.org/register1 to create an account (requires an email address). Note: to login using Facebook, go to step 3.
2. After submitting your information, a confirmation email will be sent to the registered email address. In the email, click on the account confirmation link.
3. Go to the PPA shortcut: http://go.theppa.org/fossilman and click the “thumbs up” icon. You can also search on the site for the keyword “fossilman”. Share your own thoughts in the comments section by clicking “Post Response” and a box will appear.

• Go to the PPA shortcut: http://go.theppa.org/poker1 or go to the search box on the upper right hand corner of the page and search for “poker”.
  • Click the “thumbs up” icons on the pro-poker submissions.
  • Add comments supporting poker.
• Forward this email to all your friends and ask them to vote and submit their requests!

Even more than most Americans, I’ve benefited from the freedom and growth of the Internet. Before being elected to Congress, I started several Internet-based companies, held several Internet-related patents, and created hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in shareholder value. Based on my extensive experience, it only makes sense that it is time to scrap the ineffective attempt to ban Internet gambling in the U.S. and, instead, replace it with a regulated environment where adult consumers can elect to place a wager online with assurances that they are protected from fraud and abuse. The expansion of the Internet has spurred dramatic growth of Internet-based international commerce. With a few strokes of the keyboard, we can virtually travel the globe to purchase anything from flowers (where I made my fortune) to stocks. And, for those so inclined, there are sites to play poker or even bingo.

Despite attempts to prohibit Internet gambling — most recently through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 — American consumers nevertheless are wagering online more than $100 billion annually with operators based outside the U.S., frequently based in countries with little or no regulatory framework around Internet services. Given the freedom and expansiveness of the Internet, this shouldn’t be a shock. While the UIGEA resulted in forcing many responsible, publicly traded online gambling operators to stop accepting wagers from consumers in the U.S., there are countless offshore operators that continue to conduct business as usual. There is no meaningful enforcement mechanism against offshore operators.

As a result, rather than protecting consumers, the UIGEA has simply left the millions of Americans who continue to find a way to gamble online unprotected and vulnerable to unscrupulous gambling operators. The law has also allowed billions of dollars of potential tax revenue to remain uncollected.

For some bizarre reason, while the UIGEA seeks to prohibit Americans from wagering on poker, sports and other games, it creates an exemption for wagers on horse racing, fantasy sports and state lotteries. (I’m still trying to figure out how the UIGEA’s authors determined these activities as being acceptable.) From bad to worse, the UIGEA has also been universally panned by the financial services sector, which is charged with policing unlawful Internet gambling transactions, and the law resulted in a finding by the World Trade Organization that the U.S. unfairly prohibits foreign Internet gambling operators from accessing the U.S. market, while allowing domestic companies to legally accept online horse racing bets.

Clearly, a new approach is needed.

I applaud my colleague, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, for introducing a common-sense framework that would allow adult Americans to gamble online in the privacy of their own homes in a regulated environment that offers numerous consumer protections. I believe that many Americans who choose to gamble will want to use verifiable, audited, honest American sites rather than shady offshore alternatives if they have that option.

The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267), introduced last month by Frank, would replace the current, ineffective ban on Internet gambling with a strict regulatory environment where operators must be licensed and required to implement safeguards to protect against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identify theft.

No one should doubt the effectiveness of the safeguards operators would use to protect consumers. The technology and tools exist, are in operation around the world today and are proven to be effective.

Beyond the opportunity to protect consumers, another significant benefit of regulation is the opportunity to generate billions in new revenue, which is desperately needed for critical government programs and deficit reduction. According to last month’s announcement by the Joint Committee on Taxation, regulated Internet gambling would allow the U.S. to capture nearly $42 billion in new revenue over the next decade.

Most recently, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed an amendment to dedicate Internet gambling tax revenue to increase low-income subsidies provided through the America’s Healthy Future Act. While this amendment was ultimately taken off the table, it illustrates how the billions in new revenue is needed and should be used for many vital, yet unfunded or under-funded, programs.

Finally, Frank’s bill would also relieve the significant burden financial service companies now face attempting to prohibit Internet gambling and would bring the U.S. into compliance with WTO rules by creating a level playing field for qualified domestic and international operators.

Regardless of what one thinks of the proper public policy approach to gaming in general, it’s time to acknowledge that this incidence of ill-conceived prohibition has failed, is failing and will continue to fail because it completely ignores the reality of the Internet. A new policy approach is needed to address this issue and protect Americans and the freedom of the Internet.

I am optimistic that Congress will support Frank’s common-sense approach that gives Americans the freedom to gamble online, if they so choose, in an environment where they are protected, just as one would expect and we all deserve. A sensible approach will better protect American consumers and generate considerable additional revenue.

Rep. Jared Polis (D) represents Colorado’s 2nd district.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl and Financial Services Committee ranking member Spencer Bachus wrote to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week opposing calls to delay by a year the implementation of a 2006 law that banned Internet gambling in the United States. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act directed the Treasury and Federal Reserve to issue regulations by July 2007. After a lengthy process, the final rules are set to take effect on Dec. 1.

"There is no justification for delaying the compliance date for the long-overdue regulations implementing UIGEA," Bachus and Kyl wrote. If the final rule represented an "unreasonable burden on regulators and the financial services industry," as some lawmakers have claimed, the Treasury and Federal Reserve could have reconsidered the regulations early in the new administration and before the industry began taking steps to comply. This did not happen and the financial services sector did not petition to have the rule amended, they wrote.

Kyl and Bachus said the Treasury and Federal Reserve should carefully monitor the law's effectiveness after they go into effect and consider modifications if necessary. "Delaying the compliance date serves no interest except that of the Internet gambling enterprises that have long evaded American gambling laws and will continue to do so until effective enforcement is in place," they wrote. Read the letter here (PDF).