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You are absolutely right Professor! There are a lot of great ideas out right now, the casinos only have to act.
It seems as if these companies were more concerned with milking any profits and maybe reinvesting some of them in player acquisition without taking a long term strategic view towards the legal climate. That´s sickening and annoying like hell. Appeasement policy at it´s best.
I´m in for a PAC if foreigners can join.
I was actually just thinking the same thing. For a fraction of what the UK based publicaly traded companies have lost this week, none of this would have happened.
I think the biggest problem is that the foreign companies don’t undersand how Washington works. It’s simple really, those with the largest wallets win.
Unfortunately it’s probably too late now….
Nice Professor, we are willing to donate whatever we can afford.
Good point we should all be contributing something to fight these special interest groups.
Off topic but a good read
The casinos should do what Larry Flynt did when they were trying to impeach Clinton, he offered one Million bucks to anyone that would uncover shit on anyone on the commitee:banger:
Perhaps we can do a CAP sponsored ad about this new law and advertise on Google adwords.
It might be expensive, but perhaps some affiliates could sponsor us with money and we can put together a page (with NO gambling advertising or links to gambling casinos, NO TRICKS) with the APCW video and other information about the bill that just passed. Then go after every keyword related to gambling – word will get out REAL quick that way.
Put information on getting in touch with local senators/representatives/newspapers/tv/radio etc…
You would have thought the casinos would have been smart enough to do things like this BEFORE this happened.
We should have been less greedy as well. There’s probably some law that prevents foreigners from contributing to PACs. At least there should be. That means that US citizens need to organize this.
Hind site is what it is. I think that if we had it to do all over again, we would have only accepted CPA deals with certain casinos, and if I knew that hooker had… We’ll that’s another story altogether.
Sounds like a good idea. The timing is a little backwards. PAC spelled backwards is CAP. Coincidence? Maybe. Or perhaps it’s a sign!
FruckinFristed does have a point. Maybe we should be the ones to start a PAC instead of waiting for others to do it for us. I am already making donations to PPA (Poker Players Association) and NROG (National Rights for Online Gaming). I have no problem donating to a PAC created by CAP.
Plus I feel another reason for not having a PAC is that casino affiliates are just beginning to find each other and coalesce into groups that can function with common goals. I really did not know what CAP was doing until the CAC2006 conference. Now I am spreading the word so we can get more members. It was great to know that I wasn’t alone in this industry.
Cap -> Pac
For some strange reason, when thinking about a PAC the name Dominique comes to mind. I don’t know why? :laugh:
I would be a part of it and get involved.
Certainly a great idea :hattip: But many of us are about to have our livelihoods cut. How much money would it take to get this going? I would definitly contribute what I could.
I wrote about this earlier in the week over at Casinomeister:
The fact of the matter is that there has been no COLLECTIVE effort made by the industry. Sure, most of the big guys have been dropping money into assorted lobbyists pockets, however, this has continued to be mostly ineffective. The one time a lobbyist WAS effective, it was of all people, Abramoff. We all know that his success was crucial to the direction we now find ourselves in.
It seems incomprehensible that an industry worth billions, which shells out literally hundreds of millions in marketing dollars, did not have a collective plan to bring the questionable US status to the public forefront and moreover, create a united front to challenge the US stance.
For example…
When California Indian tribes wanted to bring casino gaming into the state, a very public campaign was waged. It was waged via multiple snail mail information packs, newspaper, billboard and television advertising and they enlisted the aid of the biggest PR companies available. Solid facts were presented…opposing views were presented. Without this sort of plan, most Californians would not even have been aware of the issue and Indian gaming would not have made it onto the state’s soil.
Rather than earmarking marketing funds towards new players, it would seem to have been a wiser move to split off 30% towards a US campaign to prevent the ignorance and apathy we’re now mired in.
We were all shocked when David Carruthers was arrested and it was a stunning moment for this industry. What is most disturbing about this is how Carruthers was unable to make bail. In terms of this industry and salaries, a one million dollar bail (essentially $100,000 up front with property as bond) would not seem to be something difficult to pull together. It was stunning to see Carruthers sit in jail for nine days before he was able to comply with the bail requirements. I just cannot understand why the industry did not rally behind Carruthers, showing a united front, and not only pay the bail, but pledge to pay all of his legal defense fees. Instead, Carruthers has been essentially “fed to the lions,” and is now something of a parriah.
Over the past few days, I’ve spoken with several operators and I’ve asked why there has been no collective efforts. EVERY single one of those I’ve asked have had the same response…
“We need to take the road of caution and we cannot afford to have our names out there.”
Each time, my response is the same…
“Why? It’s not as if you’d be coming to the US now, anyhow. What is there to lose at this point?”
And in each case, I’m still waiting for that answer.
It’s time for the industry to band together in a big way…and bring along the big bucks. We can no longer hope that Antigua or people like Michael Corfman will fight these battles on their own. This is an industry issue and must be addressed BY the industry.
To answer Lou’s question regarding the IGC, we have to look towards the casinos and ourselves. The IGC can only do as much as they have funding to do. Remember–this is an organization committed to the International community and they are severely underfunded. The funds they DO have must be spread not only towards US issues, but issues worldwide. It’s really not fair for us to point a finger at the IGC in this.
The sad part is that if there was a PAC before this happened, no one’s name would have been represented, it would have been the United Internet Gaming Community as a whole who represented all of our interests. Imagine if every affiliate who made 6 figures a year put in 5-10k of that a year to the PAC, not to mention money put in by the offshore casinos, it could have been one of the more powerful lobbies in Washington. We definately still need it now, however, like someone just mentioned, a majority of us may be hurt too severely to contribue anything significant.
