• Poker Blog

    Poker Fan Trying to Blog Foes of Online Gaming Into Submission

    George Franklin is praying that the post is mightier than the law.

    Franklin, an online poker player who lives in Los Angeles, is so fed up with U.S. lawmakers' moves to shut down Internet gambling that he has started blogging about it and raising a ruckus in cyberspace.

    He hopes his blog will educate Americans about the growing threat to online poker and other forms of gambling from two bills that were approved by a committee of the House of Representatives and could be voted on any day now.

    One bill would be an extension of the 1961 Wire Act, anti-mob legislation that made it illegal to place bets by phone. The extension would broaden the law to include online poker and blackjack. Washinston State has already passed its own law making online poker a felony.

    The other bill would make it a crime for banks in the U.S. to transfer money from players' credit cards to offshore casinos.

    Franklin, who does tech support at a call center for a living, says that's just wrong.

    "The fact that the government is going so far to make banks stop us from making money transactions with international online gambling sites is something to be concerned about," he said.

    Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R--Va.), one of the supporters of the bills, argues that he is backing the legislation because organized crime uses Internet gambling to launder money. He claims online poker tears families apart, diverts billions of dollars from the U.S. and helps the cause of terrorism.

    Franklin says if there are problems, prohibition is not the way to solve them.

    "I don't think our government should be trying to create a world where online poker is frowned upon," he reasoned. "Instead of investing all this time and money trying to kill the online industry, the government should put those resources into helping the small percentage of online poker players with gambling addictions.

    "The average person does not want online poker to be illegal, and I don't understand why our government does. The government does not question a road trip to a brick-and-mortar casino, why should they care about online poker?

    The whole issue has been really getting to me, and I wanted to do something about it."

    That's why he set up his Web blog.

    "A blog is a great tool," he explained. "It communicates a message, it's available for everyone and at the same time it is interactive. People can place comments and feedback."

    He's also collecting e-mail addresses and names of those who post to his blog in the hope that he can demonstrate enough of an outcry from voters to show Congress the error or its ways.

    He knows he isn't going to change things overnight, but it's a start.