Breaking the Big Story – the PPA, US Attorney’s Office, and our Liberty

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jun 10, 2009 in poker | 3 comments

If you remember my blog entry regarding the ridiculous deposit caper, you'll now realize I was actually hinting at a story that I was in the process of breaking for the last week and a half. It wasn't hard to do the math, with Instant eChecks suddenly being taken off the site (brutal for the games) and then paper checks cut by the major poker rooms bouncing left and right. The kicker in this case was the absolute deathly silence by the PPA and both poker rooms regarding the matter and once I started investigating, it became plainly obvious that something major had gone down. Although when I alerted my editors at pokernewsdaily.com about what I believed to be happening I was somewhat put on the backburner, in a days time my story suddenly got #1 priority. I have site editor/manager Dan Cypra to thank for his support and lending his resources to me for my research.

Although I can't reveal all my sources that assisted my efforts, I am honored to be the individual that broke the story for the poker industry about the US Government seizing bank accounts belonging to payment processors. They did so, according to the PPA, without as much as a seizure warrant - which would be a blatant disregard for constitutional rights. The US Attorney's Office out of New York is citing the Wire Act (circa 1964) as their means for acting but at the end of the day, with all the legal gray area in regards to "Gambling vs. Poker" and the UIGEA, there's no way to know where either party really stands.

The PPA has finally come forward now that they have a prepared statement and gathered their resources to start fighting the acts of the US Government in court. It looks like the ammunition is in favor of the PPA with a slew of legal victories in multiple states where poker playing was attacked - such as the recent bid by the state of Minnesota to block internet poker (among other possible internet activities), which was recently dropped.

For years since the UIGEA was drafted, we've all been waiting for the legal showdown to determine poker's legality in the United States to finally get out of the gray area and into the light of day. The issue is one mostly met by absolute indifference by most of the American public, with this story not even cracking the CNN.com top-15 stories (some of which included a puppy rescue, a 100 year old woman eating at McDonalds and a story about birds diving and attacking people walking to work). The point is most of the American public could care less if people are playing online poker, and if you suggest to them that it can be regulated (prevents industry fraud) and taxed (raising sorely needed revenue for states) they are all for it. The only people against it are the hardened right-wing side of the government who are dogmatically rooted in the "moral fight" to keep "gambling" away from children. Their arguments rest around "fighting money laundering to keep funds away from terrorists" and "keeping our children safe from the evils of gambling addiction" which are both over-sensationalized attempts at propaganda to swing the average person (who again, cares more about old ladies eating at McDonalds) to think that legalizing and regulating online gaming is something we should avoid at all costs.

I salute the PPA and am very happy I became a paid member of the organization some months ago. I know that the very small contribution I made is now working towards a voice in Washington that would otherwise be unheard in our democracy. The big fight for our online freedom has finally come and history is about to be made. I'm glad that I had a very tiny role in bringing the truth to light and (ideally) help jump-start people to become activists for their cause.