Online Gaming Fans Help Oust One of the UIGEA Sponsors from Office

Supporters of the online gaming industry, in which bingo and poker are the most well-known games internationally, are taking the credit for playing a huge but passive role in the ouster of Rep. Jim Leach from office November 7, 2006, Mid-term Election Day in the United States. Mr. Leach is the one of the main proponents of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which has drastically affected the gaming activities like Bingo and Poker in the United States.

Rep. Leach from Iowa City lost to Democrat David Loeback on his Congressional Bid for a 16th term as the Democratic candidates swept through the political offices in the U.S. Leach's defeat in the election by about 2% came less than a month after President George Bush signed the UIGEA into a law, which states that financial institutions in the U.S., both the banking and the credit card industry are forbidden to process transactions that deal with gambling payments. On Thursday, November 23, 2006, the spokesman for the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas, said that his group sent about 150,000 emails to poker players and non-poker players with instructions on how to register in order to vote, as well as the position of each member of the House of Representatives on the UIGEA issue.

While the group did not specifically oppose Leach, John Pappas fervently believed that their reminder to their fellow gaming lovers in the country contributed a great deal in Leach's defeat. Online Gaming sites all over the country boasted after the Elections that Jim Leach was voted out of office. Online site Gambling911 said that this is a victory for Online Gambling. According to Thomas Riehle of RT Strategies, there is enough proof that Leach's position regarding the law did not help his cause.

The survey done by the group has a margin of error of about 3%. However, Jim Leach's Chief of Staff, Greg Wierzynski, said that they did not believe that the law affected his chances. Leach has been pushing for years on an Internet Ban because he said that the addiction that Internet Gambling causes ruins families and destroys that person's life.

Last September, Leach said that if the House of Congress had not acted on the issue, gamblers could access gambling activities not only in their personal computers, but with their cell phones as well. With Leach gone, gaming supporters hope to obtain an exemption for online poker and expect that others will follow their lead. Pappas conceded on the point that Leach listened to their arguments and even played with some poker enthusiasts in his office who tried to show that it is not gambling because you need skill to play it.

December 11, 2006
Jeremy Evans