The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the industry’s main lobbying force, will announce its plans for National Poker Week on Monday at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). An press conference to be held at 11:00am Pacific Time will feature Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV), former three-term Senator from New York and current PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, and PPA Executive Director John Pappas.
The announcement of Poker Week comes on the heels of the seizure of $30 million belonging to online poker payment processors by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York at the beginning of June. The news rocked the online poker industry and, although echecks recently reappeared as a deposit option on PokerStars, over 24,000 players were affected; many are now gun-shy about cashing out. Bank accounts in Arizona and California were targeted at the PPA is currently engaged in dialogue with the Southern District over the contents of the funds that were frozen. No formal lawsuit has been filed by attorneys for the PPA, payment processors, or the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), which has been keeping a close eye on the situation.
So what is National Poker Week? The PPA’s website explains that the event is “a coordinated grassroots advocacy effort focused on educating lawmakers in Washington, D.C. on the benefits of protecting the game of poker.” Lederer, Berkley, D’Amato, and Pappas will kick off the festivities on Monday, June 22nd in Pavilion 11 of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, just down the hallway from the massive Amazon Room, which is playing host to the 2009 WSOP. New advocacy tools will be rolled out, which Poker News Daily has learned includes new forms to contact Congressmen on Capitol Hill. Pappas will walk media members in attendance through the PPA’s new features at the conclusion of the event, which will also consist of a question and answer session.
Media were sent two e-mails about the event, the second of which announced the attendance of Lederer, a longtime supporter of the PPA. While many media outlets are expected to be in attendance, it is not clear whether the event is open to the general public.
Berkley is a co-sponsor of Barney Frank’s HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, which was introduced on May 6th. A total of 33 other members of Congress have also stepped up to co-sponsor the bill, which establishes a complete licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States. Frank’s HR 2266, the Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act, is up to 19 sponsors. HR 2266 delays the compliance date of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act’s (UIGEA) regulations by one year to December 1st, 2010.
Representatives from Poker News Daily will be in attendance at the Rio on Monday for the 11:00am press conference, which comes nearly 10 days removed from the beginning of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. The feature tournament kicks off on July 3rd with the first of four starting days and plays down to its final table on July 15th. The action will then break for 100 days, resuming on November 7th. The spectacle will play down to a winner on November 10th inside the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio and air on cable station ESPN that evening.
Poker News Daily has learned that Frank is slated to issue the “Shuffle Up and Deal” command for one of the starting days of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. Last year, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), whose Skill Game Protection Act would have exempted poker, bridge, mah jong, and other player versus player games from the Wire Act and UIGEA, issued the call in the Amazon Room.
The PPA is a one million member strong organization based in Washington, D.C. that fights for the rights of poker players, both in the live and online arenas. In 2006, the then-nascent organization stood at just 50,000 members. It took just two years for the PPA to cross the seven-figure mark.
