Commerce Casino Vs HR 2267 and Poker Players Alliance

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is by far the most popular organization of poker players in United States fighting for the legalization of online poker and defends the rights of players. The recent Act HR 2267 by Senator Barney Frank was filed to the Committee on Economic Affairs of U.S. and is in under the process of approval – or not – by Congress. The bill will legalize the online poker market in the United States and establish online poker sites in America. While of course many would suggest that all the poker rooms would support such a bill, this is not the case. Tom Malkasian of the Commerce Casino criticized HR 2267 during an Economic Affairs Committee session, describing the PPA as “one of the entities benefiting from illegal offshore companies”. In his affidavit, claimed that allowing illegal poker sites take licenses under the new bill “will destabilize the land based casinos’ market”.

Commerce Casino employs more than 20,000 people in California. Commerce Casino administration claims that it wants to protect internet poker players from California: “We will either protect the rights of online poker players or we will allow the operation of illegal businesses from abroad channeled millions of dollars outside the country and dominate the U.S. market”. During the filing of the HR 2267 bill, Malkasian didn’t hesitate to compare the legalization of online gambling with the legalization of marijuana! Commerce Casino issued a press release claiming that also other poker rooms in California such as the Bicycle Casino, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino and Hollywood Park Casino have come alongside the Commerce Casino and oppose the bill issued by Senator Barney Frank.

The Poker Players Alliance responded directly to Commerce Casino by a publication on PlayersBeforeProfits.com. John Pappas, director of the PPA has made it clear that this bill contains a condition in which 50% of businesses must be located within the country: so there is no particular reason to protect players from anything.

John Pappas believes that the Commerce Casino “does not want to compete with existing online businesses such as Harrah’s, Wynn, Google or anyone else who wants to involve in the field of Internet gambling. PPA hopes to gather 10,000 signatures in the publication and they have 6800 already!

Famous poker players like Phil Ivey of US Poker Rooms fulltiltpoker.com, Tom Dwan, Mike Caro, Annie Duke of ub.com, Daniel Negreanu of pokerstars.com, Phil Laak, Patrik Antonius , Erick Lindgren , David Williams and several others have already endorsed the publication with the hope that more will follow. Some players even went further boycotting California’s casinos – PPA does not officially support the boycott. Nevertheless, it is rumored that the PPA may change the attitude of the boycott (issuing a formally request towards its members0) if the Commerce Casino will not change attitude. The approval of HR 2267 still has many obstacles in its path, but the outlook is optimistic as the Poker Players Alliance and other similar online poker organizations look set to win the race.

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