Online Gambling Legislation Lobbying

February 29, 2008

The online gambling world and their attempt to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act overturned gets some serious assistance from the Poker Players Alliance. Last year the group of some 800,000 members spent almost a million dollars to lobby the government on overturning the UIGEA.

It is not illegal to participate in online gambling or to play poker online, however, the UIGEA made the processing of the payments to online gambling companies illegal. This obviously has made it much harder to participate in what is essentially a legal game.

The group spent a total of $900,000 lobbying for the rights of poker players, with the majority of it, $780,000 spent in the second half of the year alone. The information comes from a disclosure form that was posted online last week by the Senate’s public record’s office.

They are not alone in their fight against the UIGEA, there are many other groups that are fighting to get online gambling legalized again, but many do not have the powerhouse of more than three-fourths of a million people behind them. However, any strides that they are able to lobby for with that strength will only serve to help the cause further on down the line.





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