UPDATE: The RAWA hearing has been postponed because of expected inclement weather. The PPA’s message still stands.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has put out a call to the poker community, asking everybody to make their voices be heard in advance of the March 5th Congressional hearing for the Restoration of America’s Wire Act bill (RAWA). H.R. 707 would make online poker illegal in the United States, even in the three states – Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey – in which it has already been legalized and regulated.

A hearing to discuss H.R. 707 has been scheduled for 9:30am ET in front of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations in the Rayburn House Office Building. The bill was introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R – Utah), who, not coincidentally, is on the Subcommittee. The complete membership of the Subcommittee is as follows:

Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), 37th District

Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI), 8th District

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), 4th District

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), 1st District

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), 3rd District

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), 27th District

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), 4th District

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), 1st District

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), 6th District

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), 4th District

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), 4th District

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), 18th District

Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), 1st District

Rep. Pedro Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico), AL District

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), 2nd District

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), 2nd District

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), 5th District

On its website, theppa.org, the Poker Players Alliance has posted an urgent message, urging poker supports to Tweet and call members of the Subcommittee to voice their opposition to H.R. 707. The full message is as follows (emphasis the PPA’s):

On March 5th, the House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations is holding a hearing on H.R. 707, the so-called Restore America’s Wire Act bill. As you know, this bill would ban states from authorizing online poker and other online wagering. It would also shut down the successful systems that are up and running in several states.

The opponents of your freedom to play online, led by casino magnate billionaire Sheldon Adelson, have stacked the deck for this hearing. They have loaded the witness panel with anti-poker zealots who have no real world knowledge of how Internet poker works.

That is why you need to stand up for your rights. Please take a minute to send a pre-filled Tweet to the members of this subcommittee. Also, it is very important you call each of these offices and tell them to oppose H.R. 707. The bill ignores the rights of states to authorize online poker, it puts politicians in charge of the internet and it tramples on your freedom to play the game we love.

Not much has been made of the witness panel yet and its composition is not even listed on the hearing’s web page. As of now, it is a four-member panel:

Professor John Kindt – University of Illinois

Les Bernal – National Director, Stop Predatory Gambling

Professor Mike Fagan – Washington University (St. Louis) Law School

Parry Aftab – Attorney, Founder of Wired Safety, former Board member of FairPlay USA

Parry Aftab is the lone member of the group who will speak up for online, though she is not “pro-online poker,” per se. She is an expert on internet safety and fully understands that prohibition will protect exactly nobody. In August, she responded to a terrible anti-online poker article in Newsweek by writing, in part, “While all gambling is by its nature risky unregulated gambling is substantially worse. More bans just won’t work. Without platforms for safe and legal online gaming, the U.S. will continue to find itself in the unfortunate position of being helpless to stop – or protect – those who will continue to gamble online.”

The “anti-poker zealots” are the other three. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but they certainly will not be supporting online poker during the hearing. Professor Kindt is the true zealot of the group – he wants to criminalize all gambling and has frequently perverted the findings of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) to suit his agenda. He is the source of the “online gambling is the crack cocaine of gambling” bullshit.

Les Bernal is against all gambling, but is not against online poker more than anything else. He is likely a supporter of RAWA, but since RAWA still allows for online horse racing betting and fantasy sports, he might have some mental conflict about it.

Professor Fagan is also not at all a supporter of online poker, but his past objections have been more about the undesirable elements and people involved in the industry, as opposed to the actual games themselves. Should he see solid evidence that regulation can effectively keep criminals out of poker and protect players, he may soften his anti-online gambling stance.

The PPA page with pre-filled Tweets and Congressional phone numbers can be found at http://theppa.org/fight-hr707/