Meet Your Congressperson!
It has been a busy few weeks in the poker community, to be sure. With the Full Tilt Poker sale to PokerStars, the continued growth of the #Fight4Poker daily action plan, and growing momentum of poker legislation in Congress, we can all see the impact of our efforts.
I urge everyone to keep it up. The work we do at the grassroots is what keeps the pressure on Capitol Hill. This month, let’s all try to meet with our elected officials (or at least their staffs). They are home for the August recess and will be through September 7th, so it is a great time to make the visit. PPA Director of Grassroots and External Affairs Drew Lesofski sent you a letter on this important grassroots initiative last week (here), so I hope you have been giving it some serious thought.
Your congressman and both of your senators are home meeting with constituents, hosting town hall meetings, and attending local community events. This is a great opportunity for all of us to meet face-to-face with our lawmakers to discuss the importance of passing federal online poker legislation this year. It is also a great opportunity to express support for the game itself, be it online, bricks-and-mortar, home games, etc.
PPA has made scheduling meetings easy. Simply click here to find your elected representatives’ office phone numbers, addresses, and other information. When you call to set up your appointment, simply ask to speak with the lawmaker’s scheduler and ask to schedule a face to face meeting in the district office.
PPA has made meeting preparation easy as well. Simply click here for talking points, a summary of legislation in Congress (H.R. 2366, Rep. Barton’s Online Poker Act), and the recent letter from the Fraternal Order of Police to Congress in support of licensing and regulating online poker. You can print them in either color or in black and white. With that, all you will have to do is tell your lawmakers that you support online poker and that they should too. It will not be a debate. Rather, they will seek to hear you out as a constituent.
Data from the Poker Survey
I thank the thousands of players and enthusiasts who participated in the poker survey. We gathered data that will be of great use in the fight going forward. I had the chance to interview the team behind the survey on my weekly show, Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny. We discussed the results, which included some surprises. I encourage you to check that discussion out via the MP3 downloadhere or the free iTunes download here.
The Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny webcast airs live each Monday, at 8 pm ET, on OnTilt Radio (listen live here). Follow the program on Facebook at facebook.com/PokerAdvocacy, and on Twitter at @PokerAdvocacy. The show site is ontiltradio.com/ppa. My guest on 8/20 will be Wendeen Eolis of Poker Player Newspaper.
