Dear dan,

Below is our second DC Update for 2012 available exclusively to 2012 PPA members.  Because we’ve received so many questions from members about PokerPAC and how and why it’s important in our fight for the game we love, I’m providing this week’s DC Update with a bit of background on PACs generally, and specifically why PokerPAC is so important.

PPA DC Update | February 1, 2012 | Bryan Spadaro | Poker Players Alliance

While I am not technically a lobbyist for the PPA, I am excited to write this week’s insider piece to our membership.  This week’s piece is about Political Action Committees, or PAC’s, an area in which I have expertise.

More…

That's one damn fine-lookin' Tomato Salad Phil Gordon ordered at N9NE.

As you know, poker players gotta eat …

From the official non-gaming pimpers for the Palms, on Friday night:

Phil Gordon, professional poker player, author and commentator, had dinner at N9NE Steakhouse with five friends on Friday evening (11.6.09). He enjoyed a Tomato Salad and 12oz Filet accompanied by Mushrooms and Asparagus. Also at N9NE Steakhouse was Gary Sheffield, MLB outfielder for the New York Mets, who was joined by two friends for dinner. Sheffield enjoyed the Lobster Bisque followed by Surf n’ Turf.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, through the connecting “skytube” over to Palm’s Place, the PPA was hosting a very private dinner with some of their biggest supporters at Simon. There wasn’t much tweeting about it from those in attendance — including Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, Mori Eskandani, Erick Lindgren, or even @PPAPoker — but we can deduce that this had something to do with the PokerPAC arm of things … and @RealAnnieDuke was kind enough to give us a little peek of Lindgren multitasking during the meal … though we’re not sure what the poker political big-wigs + Joe Reitman were chewing on.

Once specific thing from the Bloomberg article Jen references below that caught my eye … it was the first time I had ever seen a numerical breakdown of the PPA’s money. (I know these are mostly public figures, because of the nature of political finance … but as far as I know, none of us had bothered to look.)

The poker alliance, headed by former New York Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato, spent $729,750 on lobbying during the first half of 2008, after spending $900,000 in all of 2007. Its political action committee, PokerPAC, began April 11 and raised $43,226 through Aug. 12.

Cool. Rough math … $50 here, $20 there, $5k from Howard Lederer … yep, it all seems to add up to me.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) recently announced that it hit the one-million-member mark. Truthfully, membership currently stands at 1,000,450. That, in itself, is amazing, considering it is difficult to get more than five poker players to agree on a restaurant for dinner and commit to it, much less take the time to become a member of a political organization.

In its effort to up the ante, the PPA has also launched a voter registration drive, making it easy to register to vote in your home state. The campaign is called, “If You Play, Have a Say.”

And the PPA has launched a political action committee called PokerPAC, and members are encouraged to get involved. With the upcoming November 2008 elections, the PPA seems to have stepped up its game and is ready to play with the big boys.

It’s time to get involved, people! Sit out of that online game for a few minutes and pull up the PPA websites. Register to vote, send messages to your members of Congress, and stand up for your game!