Barney Frank urges poker fans to keep fighting

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Aug 07, 2010 Posted in Legal Poker News | No Comments »

Gambling 911’s Jenny Woo recently scored an interview with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) whose proposed online gambling bill HR 2267 recently passed its first hurdle; clearing the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 41 to 22.

During the interview, Frank urged poker enthusiasts to stay active, and ramp up their pressure on their state and local representatives: “… I will say this – and your audience should know this – what’s more important than my estimate of the chances is the fact that they can affect those chances. If a whole lot of people who resent being told by the government that they can’t do what they want to do – call their representative and senators and it’ll pass this year.”

Frank reiterated this later in the interview: I’m going to repeat to you what I just said. I don’t want your audience sitting by passively and listening to my prediction. They can influence that. The answer is YES if enough of them will get on the phone and get to their emails and pressure their representatives and senators. No, if they don’t.”

Frank went on to say that the biggest opposition is coming from two groups: “The moralists who think gambling is a terrible thing and the monopolists who have gambling rights and don’t want to share them.”