National Poker Week: Updates and Coverage

We’re drawing to the end of the first National Poker Week, an event created by advocacy group The Poker Player’s Alliance with the aim of bringing a simple message to lawmakers and the public alike: Poker is not a crime.

The PPA and related entities have engaged in a variety of activities over the last few days (with a few more still to come) designed to communicate that message. First, there’s been an all out media blitz, including a Washington Post interview of Greg Raymer, D’Amato’s appearance on the Howard Stern Show, and multiple appearance on various news shows (CNBC clip of John Pappas here).

Second, the PPA is spearheading a variety of lobbying efforts - various poker pros and PPA members have met with members of Congress this week, and the PPA has collected over 350,000 signatures on a petition presented to President Obama.

Is it working? The general analysis is that the PPA & co are doing a slow but steady job of beating back the most damning arguments against online poker. The PPA is also getting smarter about leveraging the economic situation in the US to help remove morality from the debate, or at least mitigate the impact moral issues have on the national discussion. Finally, the amount of coverage NPW is receiving (and the generally positive tone of that coverage) suggests that the PPA is doing a generally good job of riding on the recent mainstream momentum for poker generated in the wake of the WSOP and in cultivating (and deploying) key relationships in major media outlets.

Learn more about NPW and how you can participate in this and future PPA activities.

Read a good summary of NPW and the legal issues surrounding online poker at ESPN here.

Check out on-the-ground coverage of NPW with interesting insider tidbits and insight at Pokerati here. Get more of the same in the PPA forum on 2+2 here.