Posts Tagged ‘poker players alliance’

Greg Raymer leaves PPA in Wake of Prostitution Scandal

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

For the past few years, Greg Raymer has been fighting for American poker players’ rights as a member of the Poker Players Alliance board. However, his work with the PPA will come to a halt for now after Raymer was busted for soliciting a prostitute in Wake Forrest, North Carolina. The 48-year-old voluntarily stepped down so that he can focus on his legal problems.

PPA Executive President John Pappas discussed Raymer’s decision by saying, “Earlier today, members of the Board of Directors of the Poker Players Alliance had a conversation with Board member Greg Raymer. Mr. Raymer requested, and the rest of the PPA Board accepted, that he be given a formal leave of absence as member of the PPA Board.”

With the organization currently battling for legalized poker on both the state and national level, it’s obvious that Raymer’s current problems aren’t an asset. Pappas said, “We are at a critical juncture in the fight for poker rights and we have to make sure side issues do not obscure focus from the main issue.”

During the time that Raymer was with the PPA, he showed up to various poker-related court cases around the United States. He also spoke to Congressmen on Capitol Hill about why online poker should be legalized.

Based on everything that Raymer has done, it’s not surprising that Pappas left the door open for him to return to the PPA board one day. However, the rest of the PPA would have to see Raymer as an asset, which certainly won’t be any time in the immediate future.

Greg Raymer is best known for winning the 2004 WSOP Main Event. He has also won four Heartland Poker Tour titles, and cashed in quite a few WSOP tournaments. To date, he’s earned $7,391,124 in live poker tournament winnings.

California Will Discuss Intrastate Internet Poker Legislation Today

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Live poker games have been available to Californians for some time now. However, there are currently no licensing requirements, regulations or law enforcement tools designed to protect the millions of poker players in California who play real money games on the Internet. Today at 3:30pm PST, California’s Senate Government Organization Committee will discuss the state’s first Internet poker legislation.

The legislation, known as Senate Bill 1485, will implement several rules and regulations on the Internet poker industry and players in California. The bill will authorize three hub operators to allow legal poker gaming online in the state. This means that Californians will only be able to play at those specified hubs when in California. Additionally, these hubs must fork over at least 20% of their gross revenues to the Internet Gambling Fund each month, a newly created Californian fund. Online poker players must be at least 21 years old.

Both the Morongo Band of Million Indians and the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) have issues with the bill in its present form. John Pappas, the executive director of the PPA said, “We have some legitimate concerns with the legislation that hopefully will get remedied. A lot of people think the chances of this bill moving forward this year are slim because no one has really gotten behind the current draft and there seems to be a lot of division on what the best end product would be.”

It will be interesting to see what results from discussion of the bill in California today.

Are More Senators Jumping on the Online Poker Bandwagon?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

It’s no surprise that House Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts supports online poker, with his very public work to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) over the past couple of years. By the same token, other congressmen such as New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez have also publicly supporting online gambling. However, in recent months more and more political figures are coming out of the woodwork to support the licensing and regulation of online poker.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid, a democrat, first hinted at his possible support of regulating online gambling sites when he sent a letter asking for the delay of the UIGEA in 2006. Poker Players Alliance (PPA) executive director, John Pappas, says that while he isn’t one hundred percent sure that Reid has come around on the issue, he believes that “[Reid] recognizes that there’s some serious failures in the UIGEA.” The PPA finds the fact that Reid sent this letter very encouraging.

In fact, the PPA has been so encouraged by Senator Reid that they are supporting him in his campaign for reelection. However, Senator Reid has not yet come out and said that he would support licensing of online casinos in the United States, in part because he needs to watch out for the live casino industry, which thrives in Nevada, the home of Las Vegas.

Though Reid is not yet a sure thing, he is expected to become a supporter and other congressmen are expected to follow suit.

WSOP Winner Joe Cada Lobbies for Poker On Capitol Hill

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Joe Cada, the winner of this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event, headed to Capitol Hill yesterday to lobby alongside the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). The PPA is a lobbying organization with more than 1.2 million members, fighting for the rights of poker players.

PPA has already succeeded in a number of victories, including achieving a 6-month delay on the regulations set forth by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). However, the battle for poker rights continues and Joe Cada, 22, is now one of the spokespeople.

On his visit to Capitol Hill, Cada met with a number of lawmakers. He met with California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow and Congresswoman Candace Miller, also from Michigan. He also met with the Nevada delegation in DC and a number of other members of Congress. Cada said, “We know these members are interested in poker. They’re poker players themselves.” These are the people who can help the PPA achieve their goals and get positive poker legislation passed.

Since Cada’s win he has made several appearances around the country and on television, including on ESPN’s SportsCenter and the Late Show with David Letterman. It’s clear that he didn’t just take his WSOP winnings and run. He is spreading the word of poker and lobbying for improvements for poker players everywhere. Cada says he is interested in speaking with the PPA more, as well as Congress, and to do everything he can to help.