The recent shift in the congress can be attributed not only to the Bush administration's war in
Iraq policy but also, even though on a much smaller scale, to the anti-online gambling law that was passed a few months back as part of the Post Authorities Bill.
Jim Leach might not have taken this into consideration when he fathered the anti-gambling bill, but a lobby arranged by online gamblers managed to amass nough votes to impeach him out of office in what many consider a big surprise. Lead by the Poker Players Alliance, each member contacted their friends, family and other members to convince them to show their anger against that Bill by casting their ballot against Mr. Leach. And it worked. They managed to vote in the Democrat instead of the Republican.
But, Mr. Jim Leach is only the first name of their list. And now that they know it works, the Alliance plans to vote out all those who voted in favour of that bill. They hope that this will eventually bring some of the those congressmen to reconsider their stance and annul that bill, but if not, they hope that the newly ellected will do that.
The first thing on the PPA's agenda is to introduce themselves to all the newly elected congressmen and to show them the efforts they are taking in order to boycott those against the anti-gambling law. The group hopes that this will pressurize them into reversing the online gambling ban.
Right now, all they want is that poker be exempt from this ban because they consider poker to be a game controlled by skill and not just by sheer luck, and as such, one that needs not be banned. They also mention the amount of tax dollars that the government will gain by this hoping to convince those undecided.
