Two Steps Forward in Fight for Online Poker

Call it a rally cry or a jump on the bandwagon, but with the UIGEA hitting poker so hard over the past year, it is high time we see some hope on the horizon. That hope comes in the form of a new president taking office on Tuesday and the old one (and his sneaky midnight regulations) getting the boot.

President-elect Obama and his transition team established a website to give the people of America a voice. Change.gov has a section called Citizen\’s Briefing Book, wherein with a simple log-in, anyone can sound off about issues that they\’d like to see the Obama administration put on its radar. Poker players have stepped up and taken action, not only by posting entries about online poker and the UIGEA, but taking one post in particular and ranking it so high (second at one point) that the Obama administration will have to take a look at it.

The entry called \”Boost America\’s Economy with Legal Online Poker\” didn\’t use spell-check isn\’t the most detailed, but sometimes short-and-sweet is all that\’s necessary. By thousands of people logging in and hitting \”vote up\” next to the entry, it has become one of the most viewed on the site. It takes a few minutes, and each subsequent vote will push the issue that much closer to Obama\’s desk.

Meanwhile, in Congress, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has introduced the Midnight Rule Act in an attempt to negate – or at least call into review – the last three months of regulations put into effect by the lame duck Bush administration. That would include the UIGEA that, despite objections by financial institutions, will go into effect on Monday, January 19th with compliance required by December 1st. If Nadler\’s bill passes and gets to Obama\’s desk, all of those midnight antics would go through a review, and possible rejection, by the appropriate members of Obama\’s cabinet. This is a chance to reverse the enforcement dates of the UIGEA and give us more time to lobby Obama to help us change it.

Get on over to the PPA website, where you can get in touch with your Congressional representative and urge their support of the Midnight Rule Act introduced by Nadler.