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Today I decided to ask Joe Rogan for help. Joe has always been incredibly outspoken on his beliefs, even when they are unpopular, so I think if we can convince him to dedicate even 5 minutes on his show to a rant on why folks should be able to play online poker, it will be well worth the few seconds it takes us to like the post and/or post a new comment.

https://www.facebook.com/JOEROGANDOTNET/posts/10150319507224902

As always, thank you to all who help out with the PPA campaign, please take a few minutes to answer one or more of the calls to action in the PPA post above as well.

I received a letter back from Mi. Representative Dan Benishek.




October 5, 2011







Dear Cody:



Thank you for making an effort to communicate with me regarding Internet gambling. As your representative in Congress, I appreciate the opportunity to learn your views.



As you may know, the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued indictments against four major online poker sites amidst charges of money laundering and illegal gambling. Additionally, the domain names of these sites have been seized by the FBI. The Justice Department brought these charges in accordance with legislation passed in 2006, which effectively outlawed Internet gambling.



Congress passed legislation banning this practice because unlike games played in a casino, it is harder to ensure people under age are prohibited from playing. Furthermore, Internet gambling makes it very easy for young people to quickly lose money. While there may be benefits to legalizing online poker and regulating it, these companies knowingly broke the law and deserve to be prosecuted accordingly.



I appreciate your deserved concern about Internet gambling. While we may disagree about this issue, I am honored to serve as your representative. It is my hope that you will continue to communicate with me in the future on any issue that may be of concern to you and your family.






Sincerely,
Dan Benishek M. D.
Member of Congress

P.S. I would also like to invite you to visit my website, www.benishek.house.gov, for further information. If you have not already done so, please submit your email address so that my office may keep you informed on issues in Congress.

Facebooked and twittered, twittered from DC as well.

Done.

October 6, 2011

Will you take a few moments to stand up for poker? These items take mere seconds to complete. Let's focus on Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Chair Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) today:

- Post and like pro-poker comments on her Facebook wall HERE. You don't have to like the main post (non-poker...on protecting children from the dark side of the Internet) to like and make poker comments. As a time-saving measure, try using CTRL-F to search for the term poker, using highlight all.
- Send prefilled, editable pro-poker Twitter messages HERE, HERE, and HERE. Try to space them out by at least an hour. If you can't, it's better to send them at once than not at all.
- Let's continue to like and make pro-poker Facebook posts on both of of Rep. Upton's FB walls HERE and HERE.

Please reply in this thread with posted, done, sent etc. to encourage others to participate. The past 39 actions have generated triple-digit participation, so let's keep it growing. Thanks!

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If you wish to do more today, please send the new (as of Monday) PPA prewritten, fully editable letter to Congress. Simply click HERE to send it. If you have sent it, please have your friends and family send letters. Feel free to offer to send it for them (once obtaining their permission, of course).

Well done all!

I received a letter back from Mi. Representative Dan Benishek.....

Thanks for posting that. While it's too bad that he's against it, it's great that he's hearing from constituents with differing opinions. While we may not change his mind, hopefully we can help him to see enough of our position simply to vote against us, rather than being a zealot in opposition to us.

Today I decided to ask Joe Rogan for help. Joe has always been incredibly outspoken on his beliefs, even when they are unpopular, so I think if we can convince him to dedicate even 5 minutes on his show to a rant on why folks should be able to play online poker, it will be well worth the few seconds it takes us to like the post and/or post a new comment.

https://www.facebook.com/JOEROGANDOTNET/posts/10150319507224902

As always, thank you to all who help out with the PPA campaign, please take a few minutes to answer one or more of the calls to action in the PPA post above as well.

I liked it. Well done!

The first link to Rep. Upton's FB wall should go to http://www.facebook.com/RepFredUpton?sk=wall&filter=1

Done for today.

Twittered and facebooked!

What a great idea! Stuff like this will help get so much more support from the poker community.

October 7, 2011

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), a longtime opponent of all gaming, attacked online poker in a House speech yesterday. While he did it in the context of attacking poker supporter Grover Norquist, today's poker rights action is not a defend Grover Norquist action. Rather, it's a defend poker action.

Some here will post in support of Norquist and poker, while others will be critical toward Norquist but supportive of poker. Many of us won't mention any of the broader subject matter at all, instead focusing solely on poker. All of these approaches are fine, of course...we simply need to tell Rep. Wolf our opinion of his attacks on our game.

? Post and like pro-poker comments on Rep. Wolf's Facebook wall post on his statement HERE Please do not accidentally like the main anti-poker post. As a time-saving measure, try using CTRL-F to search for terms like poker and 2366, using highlight all.
? Let's continue to post and like pro-poker comments on Rep. Mary Bono Mack's (R-CA) Facebook wall HERE and on both of of Rep. Upton's Facebookwalls HERE and HERE. There are new comments posted since yesterday, so let's support them!

Please reply in this thread with posted, done, sent etc. to encourage others to participate. The past 40 actions have generated triple-digit participation, so let's keep it growing. Thanks!

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Here's the statement:

INTERNET GAMBLING AND CASINOS

Mr. Norquist also has a long history of lobbying to spread Internet gambling. According to public lobbying disclosure reports, Norquist’s clients at Janus-Meritt included a variety of gambling organizations, including the Interactive Gaming Council, organized to oppose the Republican-led effort to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. It is also worth noting that the Interactive Gaming Council was made up of online poker companies, including Full Tilt Poker, which was shut down by the FBI in April and is described by the Justice Department as a massive Ponzi scheme.

As recently as January 2011, Senate lobby disclosure forms show that Mr. Norquist continues to lobby on expanding Internet poker issues in his capacity as president of Americans for Tax Reform. Why would Mr. Norquist and ATR have an interest in lobbying to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act?

The Washington Times reported on September 21, 2011, that critics of expanded gambling worry that legalizing online poker will increase gambling addiction and its fallout, such as divorces, bankruptcies and suicides. ‘People may not understand how highly addictive it is, when you’re alone in your home,’ said Jerry Prosapio, co-founder of Gambling Exposed and a self-confessed gambling addict who quit 28 years ago. ‘Online gambling is just another way you’re going to create more addiction and then you’re going to see more crime. It’s just no good for America.’

Mr. Norquist also took money from other gambling interests, like the Venetian Casino Resort, according to a March 31, 2006, article by Michael Kranish in the Boston Globe.

I think it is fair to ask: whose bidding is Grover Norquist doing? Why would Americans for Tax Reform take such a longstanding interest in proliferating gambling in the United States?

I'm not personally a supporter of Grover Norquist at all. However, I've sent a message to Rep. Wolf encouraging him to look at the issue of online poker separate from Norquist's involvement.

Done for today. :-)