NEWS RELEASE:

Statement by PPA Chairman D’Amato on Mark Up of H.R. 5767

Washington, D.C. (June 25, 2008) – Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with over one million members nationwide, today issued the following statement on the House Financial Services Committee’s failure to pass H.R. 5767, the “Payment Systems Protection Act,” by a vote of 32-32.

“The PPA is surprised that the Financial Services Committee today failed to clarify what constitutes ‘unlawful Internet gambling’ under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The King Amendment would have required a separate formal rulemaking with an administrative law judge to determine the definition of unlawful Internet gambling.

“The Federal Reserve, Department of Treasury and the banking industry have all testified before Congress that the lack of a definition of ‘unlawful Internet gambling’ makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to enforce this law and would result in a broader review and denial of financial transactions because they could possibly be deemed unlawful under UIGEA.

“It is disappointing to realize that opponents of this legislation still do not truly understand the intent of the bill. It was clear today that those who oppose this bill chose to focus on emotional and non-germane issues, such as the harmful impact of gambling on children, instead of on the merits of the bill itself.

“As it stands, UIGEA is a completely unworkable and unenforceable bill that would do little to address the main concerns of its sponsors – namely, protecting underage and compulsive gamblers as well as cracking down on money laundering. To truly address these issues, the PPA firmly believes that Congress should implement thoughtful and effective regulation of the online gambling industry as opposed to outright prohibitions, which history has shown do not work.

“Unfortunately, debate over the morality of gambling trumped debate on the fact that UIGEA is completely ineffective and unenforceable.”

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The generosity of poker players shined again today when Jimmy Shultz, shortly after winning Event 12 at the WSOP, pledged to donate 25% of his $257K prize money to his hometown Charleston (S.C.) Fire Department in honor of nine firefighters who died recently in a horrific warehouse blaze.

Shultz, who now lives in Ohio and lost a close friend in the fire, dominated the final table of the $1,500 limit hold’em tournament which attracted 880 players over the weekend at the Rio in Vegas. He wore a ball cap sporting the letters “CFD” to honor the firefighters.

Word came later Monday that Eric Brooks, winner of Event 14, the $10K stud tournament, would be donating his entire first-place check to the Decision Education Foundation. I’m not sure what that is, but they’re about to receive $415,856! Brooks apparently will keep the gold bracelet, his first.

And just recently, thousands of “Average Joe” players on PokerStars donated about $100,000 from their online poker accounts to help the earthquake victims in China. That total was matched by the poker site.

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The economy may be free-falling, but the number of players for 10 of the early World Series tournaments so far are up from 2007’s totals after a week of play.

Matching last year’s entries to the same events so far this year shows nearly 700 more players to date. The total this year is 10,828 vs. 10,138 when comparing events featuring the same game and buy-in. (NOTE: I’ve included in this total the $10,000 buy-in seven-card stud event, which ends Monday, even though the early stud event on last year’s schedule was a $5,000 tournament. Turnout was only down 22 players to 158 despite the doubled buy-in. All other events were exactly the same.) Individually, 4 events have shown increases while 6 have been smaller.

Because there are several more $10K events this year instead of $5K ones and the same total number of tournaments (55), it’s likely the prize pool grand total will rival or exceed the record $159 million from 2007. We’ll see.

I still think the main event next month will drop another 1,000 or so from last year to about 5,300 players. That will make it the 4th largest live tournament ever — the others being the previous 3 main events, of course.

The increase in entries so far this year is mostly due to a monster field in the first $1,500 no-limit hold’em event last weekend. This year’s field of 3,929 blew away last year’s huge crowd of 2,998. That turnout made it the 4th largest live tourney ever — at least until this year’s main event happens.

A complete amateur named Grant Hinkle from Kansas City, with no apparent record of previous big wins anywhere, captured Event 2 for a cool $831K. In the final hand he raised pre-flop with 10-4 suited, got re-raised to $1.2 million by amateur James Akenhead holding A-K offsuit, then (for some reason!) pushed all-in. James called in a heartbeat, of course. How good was this flop: 10-4-10! For good measure, the case 10 came on the turn! Wowee!

My favorite player, pro Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, finished 3rd for more than $300K. WTG Chris!

Speaking of pros, the two most popular first-time bracelet wins so far have been recorded by David Singer in Event 3 ($1,500 pot-limit hold’em with 713 players) and by Erick ‘E-Dog’ Lindgren in Event 4 ($5,000 mixed LH and NLH with 332 players). Both were long overdue and well-deserving.

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