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On the moral front, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not approve online gambling. She is dead set against legalizing the activity, all for personal and religious reasons. Of course if enough of her constituents felt it might improve their stronghold, Pelosi might be swayed. As it stands right now, this is far from being the case.
"(House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi knows that her own majority still depends on members elected from relatively conservative rural and suburban districts. Of the 254 House Democrats -- it takes 218 to form a majority -- 49 come from districts John McCain carried last year, according to a Congressional Quarterly analysis. Pelosi wants to protect those 49." ("The Real Pelosi", EJ Dionne, Washington Post Apr. 9, 2009).
This weekend, the Poker Players Alliance confirmed what was already pretty well known within industry circles. One person put it this way: "The PPA is the Internet Gambling Council's bitch". That's because a press release issued by the PPA confirmed that all of their money is coming from the IGC.
"The folks in Washington, D.C. were under the impression that funds were coming from the PPA's million plus members," one industry insider told Gambling911.com. The PPA announced that the IGC was injecting their group with $3 million for lobbying this year. "Pelosi will block any attempts. They might as well just shove that $3 million up their asses."
The politicians will be more than happy to take the PPA's money and tell them what they want to hear.
The results of the Poker Players Alliance and IGC's past lobbying efforts have been astonishing thus far. The activity is still not legal under federal law, companies have been forced to fork over millions to the U.S. government while arrests have continued since passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming and Enforcement Act in October 2006.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
