Amid the sea of individuals actively involved in National Poker Week was Mickey Leibner, a lobbyist for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Leibner sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss lobbying for the legalization and regulation of online poker in the United States.
Poker News Daily: How did you become involved with lobbying on behalf of the PPA?
Leibner: I work with former Congressman Toby Moffett and have been lobbying on behalf of the PPA since the fall of 2007. Our policy is that we won’t lobby for any causes we don’t believe in. We want to go to Capitol Hill with clients who have a good story to tell. The PPA and the poker world have a great story to tell. It’s a message of personal freedoms.
PND: You mentioned personal freedoms. Does that resonate with Congressmen when you lobby about the issue?
Leibner: It does resonate. One of the interesting things about this issue is that it truly resonates across the aisle – Democrats and Republicans. I personally am a big-time Democrat, but there are people we meet with on both sides of the aisle that like this issue for different reasons.
PND: What’s an average day for a lobbyist?
Leibner: We do a lot of preparation, like crafting memos for staff and gathering the most relevant information on an issue. What we do is based on our knowledge of a particular Congressman, district, office, or staff member – We tend to tailor what we say so it will have the greatest effect. You want to make sure that you’re using the right arguments with a rural Republican Representative and those are probably different arguments than you’d use with an urban Democrat, for example.
PND: You told us earlier that your firm also lobbies on behalf of environmental issues and other efforts. Is it difficult juggling several different commitments?
Leibner: It’s not necessarily hard and it keeps it interesting. I actually like it because every day is a little bit different. I can wake up every morning knowing that everything I’m doing is something I can get behind and feel good about. That makes a big difference.
PND: How did you begin your lobbying career?
Leibner: I’ve been politically involved for a while. I graduated from college and really didn’t know what I was going to do. I wanted to be in politics. I focused a lot in college on the intersection of technology and politics, so I wrote a thesis on the world of blogs. I was looking at a number of non-profits and organizations outside of the government and I happened to get in with Toby Moffett. It’s neat because the poker issue allows me to work on the intersection of technology and politics.
PND: What is your forecast for the future of internet gambling legislation in the United States in 2009 and 2010?
Leibner: We’re very hopeful and we’re very confident that we can get these laws passed. We have a lot of powerful people on our side, including Barney Frank, who is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. It just so happens that we’re in the midst of the biggest financial crisis in the past few decades. We’re confident that our message is getting through.
We hope that HR 2266, which is the bill to delay the implementation of the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by one year – We’re hopeful that we can get something done on that as soon as we get back from the August recess. That’s the plan. Tell your readers that we’re out there every day and trying to bust our butts to get this done. We’re pretty confident and feel better than we did a year ago at this time.