News 3/8/11 – What is Fair Play USA?

August 2 | Posted by admin | News Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Most industry watchers and poker enthusiasts are quite familiar with the legal status of online gaming in the United States.  They will also be familiar with Poker Players Alliance (PPA), a lobbying group with the interests of poker players at heart.  Fronted by the always effective John Pappas, it has existed since 2005 but just failed to stop the bizarre passing of the UIGEA 2006 bill which effectively outlawed online gaming.

The PPA has now been joined by Fair Play USA, an organisation which will lobby specifically for online poker and online gaming in general.  The PPA on the other hand is interested in all aspects of poker.  Fair Play USA has been in existence a matter of weeks but has already caught the attention of those who follow the battle for legalisation.

As Fair Play USA state, online gaming for money is not illegal in the USA, only the payment processing mechanisms are.  This leaves poker players open to all sorts of abuse from online operations set up by criminal organisations.  Money then goes into the hands of those organisations, rather than passing into the tax revenue net.  Aside from the argument that in a free country, why on earth can’t citizens gamble online, these are the most powerful arguments for legalisation, and this is a time when the USA could really use an extra buck or two in tax revenue.

There’s some impressive names supporting the effort. Greg Raymer is a 2004 WSOP Main Event bracelet winner who has joined the campaign for legalisation. He is an accomplished live tournament player and currently a teacher of poker at the WSOP Academy.  Parry Aftab is a lawyer and advocate of education regarding internet safety.  She is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and wrote one of the first books about staying safe online – ‘A Parents Guide to the Internet’.  Lastly Tom Ridge is a name familiar to overseas readers as well.  Once the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, he knows runs his own risk management company.  His organisational abilities are second to noe.

The pressure is certainly mounting now and it seems only a matter of time before common sense takes over.  Roll on legalisation.

 

 

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