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18 March
2008 Student Group
To Protest Possible Jail Terms For Poker
Players The
Global
Poker Strategic Thinking
Society
(GPSTS), the group formed at Harvard
Law School
to promote poker as an educational tool, is
co-sponsoring a rally with the Massachusetts
chapter of the Poker
Players Alliance
to protest the criminalisation of Poker in Governor
Deval Patrick's gaming bill. The group plans
to demand that Governor Deval Patrick explain who
wrote the provision of the Casino
bill outlawing poker, which a Harvard Law Professor
called "crazy and non-sensical." "I don't think
filling our expensive jail cells with poker players
is what Massachusetts voters had in mind when they
elected Deval Patrick," said Charles Nesson, the
Harvard professor who founded the GPSTS. Governor Patrick
"owes the people of Massachusetts an explanation"
as to how the anti-poker provision found its way
into the bill, Nesson said. "We intend to
keep pushing this until we get answers from the
governor," Nesson added. A public hearing
on the legislation, the Massachusetts Casino
Expansion bill (H. 4307), is scheduled for Tuesday
after the 9:15am rally in front of the Statehouse.
Nesson plans to speak at the rally. If the bill
passes, residents of Massachusetts who play online
poker would face jail terms of up to two years and
a maximum fine of $25,000. Massachusetts would be
the only state in the country to explicitly make
the playing of Online
Poker a
crime, and the law would even apply to players in
online poker games where no money was at
stake. "There is another
downside to the anti-poker legislation. Outlawing
online poker also advertises to the world that
Massachusetts is a state that discriminates against
the Internet and new technologies, which is exactly
the opposite of what the state needs for its
economic development," Nesson added. John Pappas, the
executive director of the Poker Players Alliance,
said that Massachusetts had become a bellwether
state in terms of its policy toward online
gaming. "People around
the world are watching to see how the Massachusetts
legislature deals with this issue because its
significance goes far beyond gaming," said Pappas,
whose organization has about 900,000
members. "We believe
taking the extreme step of criminalizing online
poker would be a strike against personal freedom,
would tarnish the reputation of Massachusetts as a
progressive state, and be opposed by millions of
poker players around the country and world," he
added. Nesson has had a
series of sharp written and verbal exchanges with
casino owners and government officials trying to
determine the author of the anti-poker provision.
Nesson said a spokesman for Governor Patrick
informed him that the governor was unaware of the
provision, while inquiries to the Governor's press
secretary have gone unanswered. Said Nesson, "On
top of the issue of creating bad law there is a
good government question concerning how legislation
actually gets written in this state. It should be a
matter of concern to all Massachusetts citizens,
regardless of their views about online games, how
this narrow industry-backed provision found its way
into the Governor's casino bill." The rally will be
held on the steps of the State House. Following the
rally, there will be a public hearing on the bill
before the Joint Committee on Economic Development
and Emerging Technologies in Gardner
Auditorium. |
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