For those that may not be familiar with the PPA, What does your organization do?
The Poker Players Alliance is a non-profit membership organization comprised of online and offline poker players. Our membership consists of enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game and protect the right to play poker in all its forms.
The PPA’s mission is to establish favorable laws that provide poker players with a secure, safe and regulated place to play. Through education and awareness the PPA will keep this game of skill, one of America’s oldest recreational activities, free from egregious government intervention and misguided laws.
The PPA offers a free membership and a premium membership. Why should people join PPA as a premium member and what are the benefits?
In terms of member benefits, the main one is to have a voice on Capitol Hill.
Prior to 2006, bills to ban online poker that were being passed by 3:1 margins in the House and 10:1 in the Senate. HR 4411 passed the House as a freestanding bill by a 3:1 margin and eventually became UIGEA.
Since then, PPA and the poker community have worked to ensure the interests of the poker community are heard on Capitol Hill. Now we are on offensive, the only thing being discussed on Capitol Hill on this issue is how to license the game. For example, after the DOJ issued its opinion on Wire Act—stating that the act applies only to sports betting and sporting events—not even the most virulent anti-poker person on the Hill has introduced legislation to amend the Wire Act to expand its scope to include online poker. To me, that’s the best member benefit, a voice on Capitol Hill.Now we are on offensive, the only thing being discussed on Capitol Hill on this issue is how to license the game.
We all need to have “skin” in the game, the PPA needs operating funds, and it’s only $15 a year. We’re not asking for hundreds of dollars, although we definitely accept donations and they go to a good cause. But, $15 a year is the best bet in poker!
Simply visit www.theppa.org/join and join today.
You also offer legal services to members?
Yes, members get access to our litigation support network run by our board member Patrick Fleming. If one of our members needs help legally, relative to poker, we have a nice network where they can speak to a lawyer. It has actually been a pretty big success. It has enabled some of our members to fight back after they have been arrested for daring to have a poker game in the own home.
We’ve had some fabulous results in terms of being able to represent the players. You can’t win every case, but having the representation for these individuals who are being arrested for trying to offer the game, in and of itself has been a great member benefit for the poker community.
What types of situations does the PPA benefit cover?
It doesn’t cover people who are running a business related to poker, but we will consider assisting premium members arrested as players or for having a home game that’s not collecting rake. We look at it on a case by case basis, of course. We all need to have 'skin’ in the game, the PPA needs operating funds, and it’s only $15 a year. We’re not asking for hundreds of dollars, although we definitely accept donations and they go to a good cause. But, $15 a year is the best bet in poker!
The PPA won’t handle 100% of the representation, but we will try to provide high-level assistance, even to the point of having someone provide expert testimony or brief that person’s lawyer. At a maximum, a PPA lawyer could act as a secondary lawyer to that person’s main lawyer to help out with the case itself.
To provide additional expertise?
Exactly. Services can range from providing simple information all the way up to having someone show up at the trial. Obviously we don’t have the capabilities of actually representing everybody who is charged with any type of poker crime, but what we do want— especially if it seems to violate fundamental things that most of us would consider fair—is to have a role that helps with the interpretation of state law. For example, if they are arrested for violating some archaic law that is just being interpreted as applying to poker—even if the law is very specific that it only applies to game of chance—we might have someone come in with expert testimony.
There are other benefits that are really good as well. Members receive a really nice t-shirt. They are thick, have good print quality and come in sizes from M up to XXL.
We also have a brand new benefit. We are now working with Hog Wild Poker and when you join PPA for $15 they’ll give you $20 worth of Hog Bucks. So you can play a number of their bonus games and win a $13,000 staking package to the largest poker event in the world this July in Las Vegas just from playing poker on their site for free.
But these guys are going above and beyond for the PPA. Hog Wild Poker asks their members to join the PPA for the same deal. That is a great benefit to the PPA as an organization because they are taking people who are ready to pay $20 for these Hog Bucks, and they are offering them a way to save $5 by going to the PPA website and joining the PPA.
In the next article we discuss some of the circumstances that influence the chances of online poker legislation passing at the federal level.
