What Is The Poker Players Alliance?

The Poker Player Alliance (PPA) is an organization that acts as in interest group for poker. It is a non-profit organization that was formed to act as an advocacy group in Washington, acting on behalf of poker players.

Players formed the PPA in 2006 as they were seeing that certain members of congress were attempting to pass laws that could ban online poker. A few months later the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed and the groups fears were realized.

This law was added at the last minute to the Patriot Act, knowing no one could vote against the Act, the law was snuck in. This galvanized the forces of the PPA. Their mission is simple, get rid of the UIGEA. Since the UIGEA the PPA has seen its membership grow to over 1 million.

The PPA is now lead by former congressman Alfonse D'Amato, giving the group credibility. D'Amato also provides a leader who knows his way around Washington. The PPA has met with congress to discuss the situation, trying to separate itself from games of chance, claiming poker as a skill game. There are bills working there way through congress that would retract the essence of the UIGEA, and get online poker back on track.

By making it illegal for US companies to own online poker rooms like Poker Stars that US players play at, all the poker rooms are based overseas. Billions of dollars are being made by these companies, and they would love to be regulated by the US.

This would allow the US government to make a lot of tax, and licensing, money from the off shore poker sites. By driving online gaming underground, the players are much more vulnerable to abuse. The legitimacy of the poker rooms will make poker safer for the players.

The PPA is trying to get congress to understand this and instead of driving internet poker underground, they would embrace it in a way that good controls could be put into the system. The PPA has also correctly pointed out that the UIGEA put us in violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) fair trade agreements we have regarding gambling.

This has been ruled on more than once, and we will face huge penalties to accommodate the countries affected. This could be billions of dollars. Online players have joined the organization in huge numbers. Although it technically isn't illegal to play online poker, it has been difficult for players to fund accounts (the UIGEA prohibits banks to have transactions with any gaming sites).

The banks are having a lot of problems with this as well. Enforcing this is very difficult, if not impossible. This ongoing battle has put the PPA in the public eye. The top poker players in the world are all joining in the fight to protect poker.

These players are well known public figures, so this helps in the struggle. The PPA will continue to fight for pokerstars players here in the US. If successful, we will be playing online without the hassles we currently deal with. Let's all hope the PPA wins the fight for poker players all over the US.