Barack Obama was taking questions from the masses today in 140 characters or less. It really is a rather unique evolution in political communication. It’s not too different from standing on a soapbox back in the day … except here the crowd is millions strong, and – bo has enabled his @replies.

The PPA rallied the troops to make sure that of the millions tens of thousands of people jumping up and raising their hands with a question, at least one that got heard was about online poker:

Don’t forget today at 2PM EDT, President Obama will be hosting a Twitter town hall and answering questions tweeted to him. Please take a moment to use Twitter to submit a question asking the President if he supports licensing and regulating online poker by clicking here. To follow the Town Hall as it happens, please click here.

Let’s make our voices heard. Tweet your question to President Obama now!

Proud to play,
Drew Lesofski
Director, Grassroots and External Affairs

I sent mine in. No answer … but we’ll see if @BarackObama maybe includes @Pokerati in his next #FollowFriday.

UPDATE: Follow this guy, New York Times politics blogger, to see what questions got asked and how they got answered.

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Crap, I’m never gonna get to that Deep Purple concert before Smoke on the Water … stepped away from the Pokerati Game @PalmsPokerRoom for a bit, and sure enough the draft of Joe Barton’s online poker bill — one crafted with more input from players (via the PPA) than squabbling online poker entities, and supposedly supported already by Harry Reid, has leaked out.

You’ll have to tell me what’s in it … I gotta go to the concert — and I’m sure the Senate Majority Leader from Nevada won’t be able to resist manipulating it in some way by the time it moves outta the house … but feel good overall that it will be more player-focused from the start than any that preceded it … simply because Black Friday put so many other battles amongst potential supporters to rest … and we’ll have to reassess, but I really think the conditions look strong for now as opposed to later. And I say that even though I’ll bet that Barton’s staff didn’t take my suggestion and include any provisions for splashing pots with concert tickets in the Pokerati game. (Didn’t they see I still have a 214 area code!?) Hey, special-interest politics is about compromise, right?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I just think the masses of poker players are in a better spot for such negotiations in 2011 than we were in 2010 … especially if this 101-page bill I skimmed is more than just smoke-and-mirrors on the water, which now it has no reason to be.

Click here to download a copy of the Barton online poker bill … so hot off the not-for-publication-yet presses, it’s listed as HR _______.

photo by James Berglie

Joe Barton’s online poker: “And then he three-bet me on the turn with — get this — jack-high! How sick is that?”

US Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will be in Las Vegas for Friday’s shuffle-up-and-deal … and possibly to unveil his new online poker (only) bill.

The Texas Republican has taken the baton from Barney Frank (D-MA), by way of John Campbell (R-CA), to lead the charge for licensed and regulated online poker in the House, with a new bill his office says he plans to “drop” either Friday or closer to the July 4th weekend.

It’s still probably too early to make decent predictions, prognostication, and prop bets — haven’t even seen a draft yet — but the forces lining up this go-round are indeed different than before.

This time we’re talking about an online poker-only bill, with a different committee path, and a conservative Republican — perhaps looking to put a bipartisan feather in his cap before the ’12 elections — charged with rallying support on his side of the aisle.

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The Poker Players Alliance continues to evolve, with Rich Muny, aka @TheEngineer2008, appointed Vice President of Player Relations. Now it is officially The Engineer’s job to communicate for the PPA on various blogs and social media forums, from Twitter to 2+2 — pretty much as he has been doing since long before April 15, only now he’ll be the guy responsible for filtering through internet noise to make sure the PPA is hearing poker players’ legitimate concerns as various bills and political stuff moves forward.

Read the full press release below:

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I know it runs counter to conventional poker(ati) wisdom that this could be true, but, well, it kinda is:

Republicans offered some hope Tuesday to online poker players sidelined by the Obama administration’s “Black Friday” crackdown.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is planning to introduce legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker and said he hopes the measure can pass both chambers of Congress this session.

“Poker is a game of skill,” Barton said in defense of the sites during a press conference outside the Capitol.

He suggested those who believe poker to be a game of chance should try playing with their own money against world champion Greg Raymer, who stood behind him at the press conference.

Shockingly, too, most Pokeratizens will probably find this curious:

Barton said he has spoken to the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and hopes to move a bill through the committee in the near future. Barton said the bill is being finalized in consultation with the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

OK, that’s enough from me — I’m just a morlock, and I’ll probably be locked up for this, but hey…breaking news!

Via genes @ Big Bill Quick’s joint…who’s kind of got his headline wrong, unless I’m so drunk I can’t read the news.

This week’s online gambling news included several poker pros as the latest victims of “Black Friday”. Plus, some of the stupidest stories we could find… with a Chuck E. Cheese lawsuit and the end of life on this planet!

Fahrenkopf: We’re ready to bring American casinos online (starting with poker)! Who’s with me?

The political arm of America’s brick-and-mortar casino industry is working on its own federal online poker bill, Frank Fahrenkopf, CEO of the American Gaming Association, revealed yesterday at a press conference in Washington DC. The AGA bill will likely be a hybrid between inter- and intra-state, providing federal oversight of independent state regulations.

Joining Fahrenkopf at the press conference were Keith Smith, president of Boyd Gaming; Gordon Kanofsky, CEO of Ameristar Casinos; and Virginia McDowell, president of Isle of Capri Casinos. The lobbying push the AGA kicked off yesterday talked about online poker most immediately, but language used didn’t seem to exclude the possibility of online slots and other casino games becoming part of these efforts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is holding a lunch today with top Democratic leaders and casino executives to discuss, they say, a broad range of online gambling matters.

Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment (parent company to the WSOP), made note of the importance of online poker yesterday in an SEC filing yesterdayreporting Caesars Q1 2011 financial results. In the positive spin put on losing $147 million in the first three months of this year, he told Uncle Sam:

“Finally, we believe strongly that the recent federal indictments of illegal online poker operators should convince Congress to allow American citizens to play online poker and to allow American companies to compete in a multi-billion-dollar industry,” Loveman said. “By acting now to legalize a game enjoyed by millions of adult citizens, Congress can clarify ambiguous federal laws, generate tax revenues for federal and state governments and bring thousands of jobs to this country.”

Poker player and industry interests are preparing to hit Congress with selective aggression in DC later this month.

The surge actually goes down on a Monday and Tuesday, but do days even matter any more when Americans can’t compete against the rest of the developed world on Sunday?

The Poker Players Alliance moved up plans for a Washington DC member fly-in scheduled for September to later this month, May 23-24 … where the official call to action is supposedly to hit Congress hard to legalize online poker and do it quickly … if not before the WSOP then at least some time in 2011, maybe, please? Click here for details on the fly-in, and here for what you can do from afar to support what should be poker’s biggest political assault on Washington DC ever.

Congress has seen the numbers — millions of voting-age American players, a $6 billion US industry, $10-40 billion in tax revenue (over 10 years), thousands of jobs — and most members know they won’t face much backlash at the polls for opposing internet prohibitions and allowing online poker the same protections as other forms of legal recreation. But what they may not realize is why it may not be so cool to wait a few years to fix things, nor how many non-criminals have been hurt by recent DOJ actions, which are rather unprecedented in that the case against online poker operators ultimately hinges on a thusfar unsettled matter of what legally defines gambling and/or games of skill.

I think for the PPA, beyond reinforcing sensible-government arguments, they plan to get their members on message — because as more and more sign on with positions the PPA first advocated after the UIGEA, the game of legitimizing online poker has evolved — while getting Congress to realize the need for more immediate action because:

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Tom Schneider

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OP-ED

It’s time to have a poker player run for President of the United States. Forget Joe the Plumber. How about Tom the Gambler?

I actually gave serious consideration to running for President in 2012. However, when I woke up, it didn’t seem like such a great idea. I thought what could a gambler offer that others can’t? I came up with several ideas and am going to share one here. This is not an article about bashing one side or the other. I’m trying to show how gamblers typically get right to the root of the problem by viewing the world differently than others.

First, I wanted to identify a problem that 95 percent of Americans would agree was a problem, thus removing all political bias. The Problem: Politicians lie, misrepresent facts and gamble with our money. Do you agree?

In a debate, if a politician sounds convincing, we believe him. He can’t be lying, he sounds so sure. The debate is concluded and the viewers have no idea that the bastard lied for an hour straight. He made up stuff and pulled answers out of his ass to avoid having to say, “I don’t know.” (Note: when pulling numbers out of asses, avoid the sharp ones like 4 and 7.)

When trying to get the Healthcare bill passed one Senator made a huge deal about the American Medical Association (AMA) supporting the bill, thus trying to make the public feel better since all doctors support it. Did you know that only 17% of all doctors belong to the AMA, because most doctors don’t like the political stands the AMA takes? Did you know that a significant majority of doctors were opposed to the proposed Healthcare bill? It is outrageously disingenuous to act like doctors are supporting the bill.
Our elected officials say that if we pass a stimulus package, we will create one million new jobs…oops, sorry, we were wrong. No big deal, we will try something else. They are guessing with our money. I like idiots in a poker game, but I’m tired of idiots in Washington. It’s like all of us voters decided to put the worst poker player in the biggest game. Unfortunately, unlike poker, these idiots can’t get lucky with our money.

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We showed you the 52-page criminal complaint — 9 charges against 11 individuals facing between 5 and 30 years in prison. Now here’s the 80-page civil complaint in the DOJ vs. PokerStars, FullTilt, AP/UB, et al:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53170382/3bb-Civil-Complaint-DOJ-vs-PokerStars-Full-Tilt-UB-AP-et-al

The Feds’ allegations tell a rather compelling narrative of illegal gambling, bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to circumvent US law — that if proven calls for the forfeiture of not just domain names, but also:

$1.5 billion from PokerStars
$1 billion from Full Tilt
$500 million from UB/AP

The court documents also spell out the details on the 76 bank accounts money allegedly passed through … in multiple countries and currencies, making USA vs. PokerStars+ not just a federal case but also an international one. And with the US Feds seeking to freeze these accounts, industry types get a hint of which Stars- and Tilt-funded paychecks may soon be in jeopardy … if they aren’t already.

With the criminal indictment and civil complaint together, federal prosecutors Arlo Devlin Brown and crew, seem unafraid to telgraph their intent: People have to go to prison and we take their money, but if that’s not gonna work, we’re at least gonna get $3 billion guaranteed … and we now have two tries to take it down!

(I use the term we because these cases are technically “the people of United States of America vs.” … thus it really is you and I and my dad and grandma and her priest and the electrician and Bristol Palin and Justin Bieber … claiming that all those online poker spoils are rightfully ours.)

The regulated online poker-only “Reid bill”, if you recall, promised to generate $1 to $4 billion a year for the US government. So you gotta figure $3 billion in forfeitures buys another year for the forces who do wanna see fully legal licensed and regulated online poker — and other casino games — to craft a bill to their liking.

Here’s the actual indictment, in the case of DOJ vs. Scheinberg et al.

UPDATE: Sorry for the bad link … have put it in a more easily accessible place via Scribd:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53107543/Indictment-DOJ-vs-Scheinberg-Bitar-Tom-et-al

UPDATE: Going live on Donkdown Radio to try to help online poker degens make sense of it all. http://donkdown.com/radio

Just before the hearing on AB258 held in the Nevada Legislature this morning, the PPA released an official press statement supporting the “interstate” iPoker bill.  This announcement made an for an interesting preface to over three hours of testimony on internet poker in Nevada, featuring a bevy of high-octane witnesses presenting an array of statistics and factoids *in favor* the bill, without a whole lot of testimony (publicly) against.

It kicked off a major rush of online poker activity in the state of Nevada today.

At the hearing, witnesses giving testimony in support of the bill included Vanessa Rousso, who made the obligatory “poker star” (pun-intended) appearance.  She gave a rather harried and then hurried Online Poker 101 primer to Nevada Legislature, who by all appearances needed it – one state rep asking during the hearing for clarification on the difference between “video poker” at a casino and “online poker”.  There were some questionable large quotations of gargantuan customer bases and revenue projections by Applied Analysis, revelations of the wealth iPoker has provided the Isle of Man, and an infomercial reassurances from the Aristotle group (whose client is PokerStars) that their INTEGRITY age verification software could protect Nevada children from gaining access to iPoker.

Or – in short – a whole ton of high-end testimony that the backers of this bill would surely like to have presented. No vote was held in the Assembly Judiciary.  The next step per @RindelAP is that AB258 will proceed to the committee’s “work session” for amendments; date to be announced.

What I was truly intrigued by was the testimony of the “objector”, Pete Ernaut, representing the Nevada Resort Association, who seems to be the public voice for at least some of the Nevada casinos.  Ernaut did not testify against iPoker, but opined that Nevada should not pass their own bill, but rather wait for federal legislation.  He agreed, when questioned, that the federal process may be indeed too slow for Nevada to have competitive advantage.

His solution? A “re-ordering” of things where Nevada doesn’t need new legislation to begin building their advantage, and can begin planning for business without federal legislation like #campbill already in place.  He referred to some previous internet gambling  legislation in November 2001 named AB466 (see full bill text).

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Only two states in the US have no legal gambling — Hawaii and Utah. Could be just one soon, say supporters and opponents alike of a bill in Hawaii that would specifically legalize Texas Hold’em and Omaha poker, live and online.

The bill, which passed out of committee yesterday, looks to make Hawaii a destination for big-time live (and televised) poker events … as well as a potential home base for online sites serving US players … by designating the foundations of Pokerati NLH/PLO as games of skill, not played against a casino “house” and therefore exempt from state gambling prohibitions.

PPA Exec Dir. John Pappas supplied written testimony for the hearing, suggesting that the way this current bill is crafted could be problematically prohibitive, as it seeks to charge $100 million for a server license and impose a 20 percent tax on all wagers while potentially challenging federal law. Pappas, however, did not provide any statement on the economic impact such a law would have on Waikiki vendors selling T-shirts like these:

Surf’s Up by Pokerati Generic T-Shirt Shoppe

The Hawaii poker bill — originally written supposedly to provide a tax holiday for buying school supplies — passed out of the Economic Revitalization & Business Committee on a 7-1 vote, and the House Judiciary Committee, 9-3. It now moves on to the House Finance Committee.

(Mahalo Poker Gnome for the heads-up.)

The Nevada Legislature’s Assembly Judiciary will be hearing the PokerStars-backed iPoker bill, aka AB258 (complete bill text here) this morning at 11am PT. The hearing is the next step in the process for this bill to become a law, though not the final one.

This internet-poker specific bill is both uniquely controversial among all of the proposed intrastate iGambling bills.  Not only does it explicitly state that the NGC may not discriminate against the likes of Poker Stars and Full Tilt, which have operated gambling sites unlicensed with US players, but the legislation defines a model by which internet poker websites *outside* of Nevada could pay to connect player pools with new Nevada player pools through B2B state-regulated “compacts.”

That’s right.  If passed as is, players on new Nevada iGambling sites could play with people that live in places outside the state of Nevada “where interactive gaming is not prohibited” – so long as a regulated deal exists between the state and external websites.

One has to wonder – if this NV bill is made into law before the newly re-introduced federal internet gambling #campbill, what will the landscape of the future internet gambling market in the United States look like?

Watch it -> Live feed for AB258 in Carson City 11AM PST here ->  Assembly Judiciary @ NV Legislature webcast

The CampBill is now available on www.govtrack.us. A copy of the bill is here. (If you can’t download the copy from that link, you can view it in a number of formats here.)

As mentioned in the press release by the House Financial Services Committee and in my blog post from this past Saturday (here), this version is the same as the version of H.R. 2267 as amended by the Committee last summer. Don’t get too excited about this version. Any federal law that passes regulating Internet gaming (and most likely only poker) will look very different from this draft. There is a broad consensus among AGA members that regulation needs to come at the federal level, but there are a lot of items yet to be negotiated among many different interests.