General Poker Discussion Poker Forums

Chad Hills of Focus on the Family responded to poker players in detail in the comments at http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/05/16/fold-on-internet-gambling/. I encourage everyone to read through his posts.

Sun Tzu said, "know your enemy" (or, more accurately, he said, "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss."). While I don't want to call FoF or anyone a literal "enemy," they are obviously an adversary on this issue, so we ought to apply this principle here.

Hills provides a lot of information that we can use on how they feel about the issue. It’s like sonar. We put our message out and now get to hear what bounced back. For instance, while many believe poker to be distinct from wagering on house-banked games of chance, Hills says online poker is the most addictive, dangerous type of gaming ever devised. This is good for us to know and to understand. Many simply assumed that anti-gaming people would prefer online poker to unrestricted broader online gaming. While I still assume the majority of our anti-gaming opponents would prefer poker + a Wire Act fix over unlimited online gaming, Hills provided great data that may help us to optimize the messaging here.

There's lots of additional info there for us. I encourage everyone to read through it carefully to gain an understanding of our opposition. Do keep in mind that, at least IMO, Hills started off believing online poker to be bad for society and then sought out justification for that belief.

Friday, June 1, 2012

The NJ online gaming bill has been delayed until fall, according to state Sen. Lesniak, sponsor of the legislation (here). It sounds like we need to reach out to Gov. Christie.

- Let's send Gov. Christie a prefilled, editable tweet in support of New Jersey's proposed legislation (S 1565) HERE. Let's contact him via Facebook HERE as well.
- Let's tweet the Venetian and the Palazzo with pro-poker messages HERE, HERE, and HERE, and let's Facebook them HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. Sheldon Adelson needs to hear from all of us.
- Let's send a prefilled tweet promoting today's action plan HERE (or retweet the tweet HERE), and let's share today's action on our own Facebook walls HERE.

If you wish to do more today:

- Let's keep posting and liking pro-poker comments on the Facebook walls of congressmen in tough (or at least competitive) election fights this year: Rep. Judy Biggert HERE, Rep. Robert Dold HERE, Rep. Jim Renacci HERE, and Rep. Jon Runyan HERE.

Please reply in this thread with tweeted, done, etc. to encourage others. Thanks for participating!

Done.

Weekend of June 2nd, 2012

The NJ online gaming bill has been delayed until fall, according to state Sen. Lesniak, sponsor of the legislation (here). It sounds like we need to reach out to Gov. Christie.

- Let's send Gov. Christie more prefilled, editable tweets in support of New Jersey's proposed legislation (S 1565):HERE and HERE. Let's keep contacting him via Facebook HERE as well.
- Let's send House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Chair Mary Bono Mack and the rest of the subcommittee tweets requesting a markup for HR 2366: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
- Let's send a prefilled tweet promoting this weekend's action plan HERE (or retweet HERE), and let's share the action on our own Facebook walls HERE.

If you wish to do more today:

- Let's keep posting and liking pro-poker comments on the Facebook walls of the Venetian and the Palazzo HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. Sheldon Adelson needs to hear from all of us.
- If you use Klout, please consider giving a +K for the topics Poker and Congress HERE. A higher score may help our efforts (and can't hurt).
- If you've not yet signed the poker petition, please sign it HERE. We're 900 from 10K, so let's push this into five figures! Let's all send a tweet to promote it HERE.

Please reply in this thread with tweeted, done, etc. to encourage others. Thanks for participating!

I see new faces! That's great. Let's all keep fighting this one together until we prevail. :-)

Done.

Thanks Sheryl!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Let's keep telling lawmakers that we want our rights!

- Let's send House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Chair Mary Bono Mack and the rest of the subcommittee tweets requesting a markup for HR 2366, the Online Poker Act: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
- Let's send a prefilled tweet promoting this weekend's action plan HERE (or retweet HERE), and let's share the action on our own Facebook walls HERE.

If you wish to do more today:

- Let's keep posting and liking pro-poker comments on the Facebook walls of the Venetian and the Palazzo HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. Sheldon Adelson needs to hear from all of us.
- If you use Klout, please consider giving a +K for the topics Poker and Congress HERE. A higher score may help our efforts (and can't hurt).

Please reply in this thread with tweeted, done, etc. to encourage others. Thanks for participating!

Done.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I created a new online petition to specific Members of Congress, including one member who is not on either Twitter or Facebook. As the petition system emails each recipient with the results, this is yet one more avenue by which we can reach each member!

- Let's all sign the petition HERE.
- Let's promote the petition via the prefilled tweet HERE, by sharing the post HERE on our own Facebook walls, and by any other social media you use.
- Let's send a prefilled tweet promoting today's action plan HERE (or retweet HERE), and let's share the action on our own Facebook walls HERE.

If you wish to do more today:

- Let's keep posting and liking pro-poker comments on the Facebook walls of the Venetian and the Palazzo HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. Sheldon Adelson needs to hear from all of us.
- If you use Klout, please consider giving a +K for the topics Poker and Congress HERE. A higher score may help our efforts (and can't hurt).

Please reply in this thread with tweeted, signed, done, etc. to encourage others. Thanks for participating!

Change.org allows petition starters to send out email updates to everyone who signed the petition. So, I went to the last petition and sent the 9K signatories of that petition a link to the new one. :-)

Done.

Thanks Sheryl!

We got over 1,000 signatures today! The PPA email blast that will go out this morning will crank that up by a lot, but I'm very pleased that our humble effort here with the daily action plan was capable of generating that level of activity.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I created a new online petition to specific Members of Congress, including one member who is not on either Twitter or Facebook. As the petition system emails each recipient with the results, this is yet one more avenue by which we can reach each member!

- Let's all ask our friends and families to sign the poker petition HERE.
- Let's all send the new prefilled, editable tweet HERE to help promote the petition.

- I created an event on Facebook for the poker petition HERE. Let's all join, post signed there to encourage others, and share on our FB walls.

- Let's send a prefilled tweet promoting today's action plan HERE (or retweet HERE), and let's share the action on our own Facebook walls HERE.

If you wish to do more today:

- Let's send prefilled, editable tweets to lawmakers: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Please reply in this thread with tweeted, signed, done, etc. to encourage others. Thanks for participating!