Online poker is being discussed on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across America, so let’s keep demanding action on online poker licensing legislation. An easy way to do this in just one minute is to sign a new pro-poker online petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. 

Simply sign the pro-poker online petition HERE and then help promote it via the prefilled Twitter message HERE and by sharing the post HERE on your Facebook wall!



Questions from fellow poker enthusiasts on the rationale and effectiveness of this online petition:

Didn’t we all sign the Change.gov petition some time ago?

Change.org is a nonpartisan online petition site that is not affiliated with Change.gov. Also, that one was to President Obama. This one is to Sen. Reid, Sen. McConnell, Sen. Kyl, Speaker Boehner and Rep. Cantor.

Will it do any good?

Change.org emails the petition recipients when we sign, helping increase overall effectiveness and ensure we are heard from:       

Think of it this way: what if you started to receive emails from each of your neighbors asking you to mow your lawn more often? Or, what if your company received thousands of emails from valued customers asking you to use a different supplier for your parts? How quickly would you act? That’s the unique thing about creating an online petition on Change.org: when you specify an email address for your target, each time a supporter signs your petition, an email is automatically sent directly to that person. Governments, companies and individuals value their reputations and feel accountable to their neighbors, constituents and customers. When hundreds or even thousands of emails arrive in their inboxes, the message is very hard to ignore.

Additionally, PPA lobbyists will be able to hand deliver the results.

We are pretty fortunate to live in an era where we have access to great tools like Twitter, Facebook, and online poker forums that we use every day in our advocacy efforts. Now we have Change.org — another free tool we can use to reach out to our elected representatives.

Five years ago, the U.S. House voted to ban online poker by a 3 to 1 margin (a bill that was, fortunately, watered down in the Senate backrooms before becoming UIGEA). Congress is now looking at licensing the game, knowing that if they do not, states will. Even the most strident anti-poker lawmakers are not entertaining the idea of passing legislation to amend the Wire Act to include online poker. It seems quite a lot has come from our efforts as a community, so let’s all keep this going forward!

Won’t online poker come back when those in power decide to let it and not one day sooner?

Our elected representatives will not simply wake up and have an epiphany. It is not as if they will say, “you know…no one has asked for online poker legislation, but let’s go ahead and license it.” They will decide to back us when they feel their constituents want it. Let’s all ensure that they hear from us!

---