PPA Launches Petition Against Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA)

The US debate of whether to continue allowing legalized online poker in the country has heated up in recent weeks after Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) reintroduced the Sheldon Adelson inspired Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) to the House last month. The bill aims to return the Wire Act (1961) to its pre-2011 interpretation which forbids all forms of online gambling with the exceptions of horse racing, sports betting, and fantasy sports. Needless to say, if successful, RAWA would not only affect the three states already with online poker industries of their own, namely Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey, but would also dismantle the online lottery markets of numerous states spread out across the country.

RAWA Hearing Postponed

This Thursday, a congressional subcommittee was scheduled to meet to debate RAWA, but a winter storm subsequently hit Washington D.C throwing a wrench in the plan. Nevertheless, it has been suggested by some that the hearing may actually have been postponed on account of the strongly biased four-member witness panel which was due to appear at the hearing, three out of four of whom were chosen by the anti-online gambling Republican Party.

The witnesses include Professor John Kindt, who contributed to the UIGEA of 2006, Les Bernal, the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, and Professor Mike Fagan, a former DoJ prosecutor who in 2006 oversaw the illegal online betting court case involving Betonsports CEO David Carruthers. Whilst all hold extremely anti-internet gambling views, Professor John Kindt is the most reviled by advocates, with the professor having claimed online poker was helping to fund terrorism, and describing it as “the crack cocaine of gambling.”

PPA Urging Players To Get Involved

Despite its postponement due to inclement weather, the RAWA hearing will soon resume, and fellow internet gambling opponent Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) is also expected to reintroduce his own version of the bill to the US Senate before long. In the meantime, the Poker Players Alliance, a grassroots advocacy group, has called upon its more than one million members to not site idly by and let their rights be trampled upon.

Consequently, on the PPA website there are a number of social media tools available which will enable poker enthusiasts to contact their legislative representatives in DC., and make known their opposition to the bill. Alternatively, the PPA is urging poker players to call or tweet Committee members ahead of the upcoming hearing, and as the website explains:

“The opponents of your freedom to play online, led by casino magnate billionaire Sheldon Adelson, have stacked the deck for this hearing. They have loaded the witness panel with anti-poker zealots who have no real world knowledge of how Internet poker works.”

PPA Petition Organized

The PPA is also urging supporters to sign a petition it has organized entitled ‘All In for Liberty’, which states:

“We the undersigned oppose federal efforts to ban Internet poker across America. In doing so, Congress would trample on the personal liberties of adult Americans while simultaneously stripping states of their Tenth Amendment right to governance within their respective borders.”

Adelson’s Cronies Not Comfortable Debating iGaming

It would appear Sheldon Adelson and his cronies are far from comfortable debating the issue of online gambling, and recently refused the opportunity to put their views forward at a forum discussion entitled “Full House Whose Got the Winning Hand?”, which was organized as part of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in the nation’s capital. In fact, Senior Vice President of Las Vegas Sands Andy Abboud, a mouthpiece for Sheldon Adelson, and the members of the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) were a complete no show to what would otherwise have proved a scintillating night of open debate, showing they are more comfortable producing fear-mongering videos from afar, rather than taking the risk their tactics are exposed as having no solid foundation. As PPA president John Pappas commented after the the debate was cancelled:

“The fact that the primary RAWA supporters refused to join this debate, after significant effort by the organizers, tells me that they want their bill rubber-stamped instead of openly debated on the merits; a basic tenet of democracy.”