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Big Budgets for Lobbying Groups

Lobbying groups in the United States have reported their 2007 incomes to the government, and like expected the online casinos gambling issue was a big ticket item at the lobbying groups. Current U.S. legislation requires all of the country’s lobbying groups to disclose which companies and organizations paid the lobbying groups and for what specific interests. With those results now in, there were certainly some surprises in the sheer amount of money that these organizations are able to throw at specific political causes. Between the Poker Players Alliance and the NFL, the online casinos gambling debate generated a large portion of the lobbying dollars.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has a growing member base of poker enthusiasts – all of whom are determined to either neutralize the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and pass licensing and regulatory measures for the internet gambling industry, or to at least exclude internet poker from the online casinos gambling ban in the U.S. The PPA is determined to surpass the one million member mark this year – maybe even topping 1.5 million. And though that would mean nearly doubling the more than 800,000 PPA members, the company is determined to grow the numbers as large as possible so that the PPA is considered an influential lobbying group. The PPA released that the group spent US $900,000 on lobbying in 2007.

The NFL on the other hand spent nearly US $1.1 million in lobbying funds to counter attempts by the PPA and others to neutralize the online casinos gambling ban. The NFL is lobbying in support of the internet gambling ban as a way to protect the revenue it receives from online Fantasy Sports gambling. Although the UIGEA blocks financial transactions between internet casinos and poker sites, there are a number of sectors of the industry that are protected by the UIGEA, and Fantasy Sports Leagues is one of those areas.