Betfair Official Blog

PPA Challenges Washington's Poker Ban

OVER in America, that land of the free, Lee Rousso is taking the stand.

Rousso is the Poker Players Alliance's (PPA) Washington State representative. And today he is court to explain in five million words of less why Washington's state's ban on online poker gambling is absurd.

Rousso and his associates put to the law makers that the ban violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

Also in the rally will be poker stars Andy Bloch and Barry Greenstein

Good luck with that.

For anyone else keen to understand the laws of the US, The World Poker Association is holding a conference on May 28 in Las Vegas, just before the start of this year's World Series of Poker.

The WPA has made its mission "to promote poker as a sport by advocating professionalism and uniform rules and standards of conduct, and by helping to create increased economic opportunities for players," according to its Web site.

Top of the agenda should be playing online for money.

Poker companies need to grow and give the punters what they demand.

More discussions at the Next Generation in Gambling event. The aim, it says here, is to "maximize marketing efforts, attract customers, build player loyalty and cement brand identity through new media-channel development. Exploring North American regulations and advances in technology are the main focal points" of the show.

Thanks to cutting edge technologies US online poker players can play faster games, with cards that flash in different colours and a separate tone for each card.

Big deal. The only way the US is going to get up to speed is by allowing its citizens to play poker online.

The rest is just details...

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