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. |