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#086 - Adventures in the Law Part ID - Mr. D’Amato Goes to Washington [conclusion]
And now the pitch ….
That’s why you need to seriously consider joining the PPA. Politics is a dirty business and the PPA got a champion bare-knuckled brawler in Al D’Amato. Part of Al’s power comes from being Al D’Amato but part of it still comes from who he represents. The online poker sites could pour in all the money necessary if it was just a matter of money. But it’s not. The populist appeal of keeping legal an activity large numbers of Americans enjoy in the privacy of their homes is powerful, and D’Amato makes it more forcefully if the PPA has big numbers. (During his first meeting with the press, according to The New York Times, he referred to the PPA as a million members strong, though an aide had to correct him and say it was 160,000 and will someday be a million.)
Look at the gun lobby. The gun manufacturers and gun owners have an obvious common interest. An individual gun owner doesn’t have the power to get anything done. (Unless he’s pointing a gun at someone.) The gun manufacturers are richer than Croesus and can buy all the influence they want, but as dirty as our political system can be, it’s no so dirty that it can’t SORTA do the people’s business. The NRA has about 4 million members, a statistic they recite to the media and legislators 4 million times per minute. It’s not Smith & Wesson that gets the attention of Congress. It’s 4 million angry gun-wielding voters.
The poker constituency has only playing cards, and Chris Ferguson might be its only member who can use them as a weapon.
But do we numbers? Absolutely.
Are we going to show them? Only if you part with twenty bucks and join the PPA. (And I think you get $20 in free merchandise plus Full Tilt and maybe some other online sites are running bonus programs so if you join or upgrade your PPA membership you get at least that much back in bonuses. It’s not an inducement to get you to play poker or even pay your way into the PPA. It’s to get you off your politically-inactive butt so they can add your number to the people whose rights they are fighting for.) The PPA got a heavy hitter in D’Amato. If he’s swinging for a million-member organization, he’ll have a chance to hit a home run for online poker.
