A social media campaign spearheaded by Rich Muny of the PPA is helping players find easy ways to get quick, meaningful messages out to chief lawmakers who could hold the keys to an open and licensed poker industry.
Muny, along with a band of enthusiasts at the 2+2 forums, are networking players into action, where sending a message to elected officials is just a click away on Facebook, Twitter, and via email.
The push is really taking off. Just this week, a new collection of professionals are getting into the advocacy mix and encouraging their fans to do the same: Big names like Tom Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, and Taylor Caby are joining the threads and letting lawmakers know that they want online poker back in the United States.
Despite the hype, the advocates behind the “Fight for Poker Rights” action campaign still run into the complacency and criticism of some players who choose to sit idly by. These skeptics of the movement quickly question how online poker could ever make it to the desk of the president and how it could ever be the result of our efforts.
The remaining doubters – bogged down by the indictments and frozen money – need to take sharp notice of the victories the campaign has already achieved.
Congressman Joe Barton (TX-R) – who in June introduced legislation to bring online poker back into the States – specifically cited pro-poker Facebook posts on his wall as one of the reasons he introduced poker legislation. And many thanks from all of us to the dedicated players who kindly asked him!
And more recently players made a huge showing at Harry Reid’s Twitter Town Hall. The Senator asked citizens to give him questions regarding job creation and poker players showed up by the hundreds to tell him how online poker could bring a flood of jobs into the country. The Senate Majority leader could not ignore the ruckus we created and stated: “we need to make it legal.”
Along with the small political victories come almost weekly statements from Gary Loveman, CEO of Ceasar’s Entertainment, assuring that online poker legislation is “inevitable.”
Clearly players do not have to look too far to realize that online poker has a fighting chance – a real fighting chance.
With all these indicators of legislation on the horizon, it makes me start to wonder: If not for the hundreds of tweets, does Harry Reid still mention online poker during his town hall?
If not for the hundreds of Facebook posts, does Joe Barton still introduce his poker legislation?
If not for all the letters, do any politicians even consider online poker legislation?
Could we have had online poker legislation years ago if we were more willing to fight for it?
I hope that all of us remain challenged by the events of Black Friday and transform our anger and frustration into will and resolve. We know the fight is long and the politics arduous but we owe it to ourselves and each other to fight for our rights to play. We need to keep our efforts up. Everyone needs to send the emails out, get the tweets rolling, and ship the Facebook posts flying.
I do not know if legislation will be here in six months, or in six years. I do not know how the politics will shift, or whether enough of our voices will really add up to a change. Who does? What I do know is that if each player were to really step up and take these steps daily, our chances will only improve.
Let it not be said that we were silent!
