The Poker Player Alliance (PPA) is still looking for signatures for its petition to legalize online poker. The PPA has reached its goal of 5,000 members in only 3 days, but with 17 days left on the clock, the PPA believes it can add many more signatures to the list and hopefully get the White House’s bill of approval.
If you’re a poker affiliate, you have a duty to sign this petition. Affiliates have lost a lot of their income since Black Friday and many of them had to look outside online poker to get back on their feet. Here’s why signing this petition serves many purposes:
- Tell the White House you support online poker. The AGA made a very good point the other day. The government works for the people, not the other way around. You have a voice in this country and should use it.
- Bring back a huge market. The online poker industry lost one of its biggest markets when Americans stopped playing. Some companies witnessed their profits drop by 20% or more in the first half of the year. There are between 1.3 million and 15 million American players. Not surprisingly, many affiliates were crushed when many of those players disappeared on Black Friday. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could pick up where you left off before the Justice Department (DOJ) started going postal?
- Clarification on gaming laws. The online poker laws have become such a convoluted mess that affiliates have no idea what they can and can’t do. Is it legal for affiliates based in the U.S. to promote online poker sites to foreigners? What happens if an American visits the site? There are no reports of affiliates facing criminal charges, but Black Friday has some of them spooked. A couple of months ago, Google and several other corporate giants were the targets of the DOJ’s obsession of destroying all things related to online poker. If we can regulate online poker, affiliates don’t have to worry about being the next names on the Attorney General’s hit list.
- Regain value as a marketing tool. Over the past three years, online poker executives have been looking for ways to phase affiliates out of their marketing strategy. After Black Friday, many affiliates feel their value to online poker sites has diminished. However, if poker is legal in the U.S. again, these sites may go back to using affiliate marketing as a core promotional technique.
- Can promote honest sites. When legitimate online poker sites closed their doors to American players, many random sites started popping out of the woodwork. A lot of these sites were shady as hell and affiliates have no idea whether or not to trust them. As an affiliate, you are taking the same risk with these sites as the players. If we can convince Washington to regulate online poker, you can sleep a little easier at night. At least you can stop worrying that the CEO of a foreign poker site is going to bounce to the Cayman Islands with your affiliate earnings.
The Department Of Justice has caused a lot of pain for affiliate marketers. As an affiliate, you should do everything possible to get the industry regulated and back on its feet. Signing the PPA’s petition may be the best chance of getting your affiliate business out of the red.