The PPA has learned that the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a hearing on Internet gaming on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. The subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will bring forward a variety of witnesses to discuss regulation of Internet gaming and gather information for a future hearing to examine the merits of Rep. Joe Barton’s Online Poker Act of 2011 (H.R. 2366).
At the time of this email the witnesses for the hearing are still unknown. The PPA and its lobbying team will continue to meet with members of the subcommittee and their staffs leading up to next week’s hearing. We will be asking PPA members whose U.S. Representative is a member of this committee to contact their member directly before the hearing. Please check the PPA website and your inbox for future announcements about this very important hearing.
We have a nice opportunity to make ourselves heard today, so I encourage everyone to participate. CNN is airing this evening’s GOP presidential debate live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET from the Venetian in Las Vegas. CNN is seeking questions for candidates via the CNN Politics fan page on Facebook, Twitter (using the #CNNDebate hashtag), and their website. So, let\’s all submit some pro-poker questions. As this debate is being held in Las Vegas, our issue will be seen as topical.
To participate:
- Submit pre-filled pro-poker debate questions via Twitter HERE, HERE, and HERE. Either submit these as-is or, even better, edit them a bit to give them some individuality.
- Like the pro-poker Facebook CNN debate questions HERE and HERE, then like and post pro-poker questions/comments there and on the CNN Facebook debate page main wall HERE. Just post something straightforward, like, \”To all the candidates: What is your position on the licensing, regulation and taxation of online poker?\” (To find all the poker questions, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “more posts” until a day’s worth of posts are visible. Then, hit CTRL-F and search for \”poker\”. Use \”highlight all\” to spot the poker posts quickly.)
- Submit pro-poker questions directly to CNN HERE. Again, try something like, \”To all the candidates: What is your position on the licensing, regulation and taxation of online poker?\”
That is all it takes! With this, not only will you let the candidates know you demand your right to play poker in your own home on your own computer…you will also let CNN know that many of its viewers are deeply interested in this issue.