A new lobbying campaign has been going on during the past week on Capitol Hill by the Poker Player Alliance. More than 100 PPA members and high known players like Chris Moneymaker, Howard Lederer, and Annie Duke, have been speaking with lawmakers hoping Congress will legalize and regulate the online gaming industry.

Getting any new laws passed will be a challenge even though the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act passed; it will be a big order.

Many hurtles head towards poker players as they deal with powerful forces that are against them as well as the move in Congress. Things like facts, logic, and honest analysis seem not to really matter or impact poker’s opponents. The PPA’s media coverage of their lobbying efforts seems to clearly show this.

“Internet gambling is the most addictive form of gambling ever invented”. This is the quote from David Robertson of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion and Lederer from the Marketplace piece. This quote is more to the point about what this lobbying is really all about.

Evidence of this quote or claim has not yet been given by Robertson. No one has really asked for evidence either. And today with the internet, video poker devices and slot machines are brought into homes with delightful sights and sounds with a stroke of a key.

- 2007-10-30