PPA in Greater Need of Financial Support

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Tuesday, September 26th, 2017 | Written by Shane Larson

A champion of online poker legislative efforts, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is a nonprofit organization that supports the right for people to play both live and online poker in the USA. Nevertheless, the online arena has become the primary focus of the PPA, as most of the significant legal battles concerning the popular card game are being fought in the virtual environment.

Poker Players Alliance

The PPA was established in 2005, and over the years has garnered more than 1 million members in the US. Even amongst the poker community, however, the PPA has been accused of bias and placing the interest of special groups ahead of those of the poker players they represent. Despite a slight conflict of opinion, however, the PPA continues to work hard in its efforts to ensure online poker remains an available option for states to adopt, and that the government does not overhaul its 2011 reinterpretation of the Wire Act and move to ban it completely. As the PPA mission statement reads:

“The PPA’s mission is to establish favorable laws that provide American poker players with a secure, safe and regulated place to play one of America’s oldest past times. Through education and awareness efforts aimed at policymakers, the media and the public, the PPA will keep this game of skill free from egregious government intervention and misguided laws.”

Player Funding

During the poker boom, the PPA had little difficult attracting the required funds needed to stay in operation, and complete all its necessary work. Three US states subsequently adopted online poker legislation in 2013, namely New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, but any advancements on that front has since subsided, despite optimistic predictions being made at the start of each year as to which new state is likely to follow suit. As the years pass by without any sort of progress in that area, it has consequently become more and more difficult for the PPA to keep people enrolled in its membership program, and therefore maintain sufficient funding to remain a viable force.

In addition to lobbying state and federal politicians, the PPA requires money to stave off anti-online gambling groups, such as the Sheldon Adelson supported Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG), as well as maintain its social media and other essential communications tools. Addressing the pressing issue of funding, Rich Muny, the PPA Vice President of Player Relations, recently wrote the following message on the TwoPlusTwo forum:

“A critical factor to winning the poker fight is through your financial support. We may have a billionaire fighting us, but the numbers are on our side. If you can make even a small contribution to PPA, you can help ensure our ability as a community to continue taking the fight to Adelson and his minions on Capitol Hill.”

PokerStars Support

One of the biggest issues between the PPA and a select few in the poker-playing community is that the organization has a well established relationship with the world biggest online poker site, PokerStars. This has created somewhat of a divide among PPA members, as in the past PokerStars has drawn the ire of many of its regular players after making sweeping changes to the rewards program it offers. This has then pushed many of its players away from the PPA, who might otherwise have lent their support to the organization.

Nevertheless, the PPA has stated on its site that it is lucky to have financial backing from the owners of PokerStars, The Stars Group, the company which was formerly known as Amaya Gaming. Its website further states that having PokerStars’ support coupled with donations from the poker community has helped the PPA to continue its fight for the rights of poker players in the US.

Bottom line, the PPA needs to remain funded in order to do its best work for the poker-playing community. By contrast, it becomes increasingly difficult for the PPA to stay focused on its goal when no one is paying for membership, or are not renewing their old ones. If they don’t receive the money necessary to keep their operations functioning, then everything will disappear, and then the poker community will lose a major voice in the world of politics. It is for this reason that it is in the best interest of players and the industry alike that the PPA keeps on receiving the donations and funding it so desperately requires.