Sat, 04/02/2011 – 02:33 – PokerPages Staff

Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas revealed that the Washington State Poker Lobby Day held in the state earlier this month was a huge success.

Key figures from PPA headed to Washington in the hope of convincing lawmakers that the gambling law passed in 2006, which classed online poker as a Class C felony, was unsustainable.

“We accomplished a lot and the feedback we got from lawmakers was encouraging. There was not a lot of appetite to keep the criminalization in the law.”

However, Pappas admitted that it was not feasible for a bill to be passed which would eradicate the criminalization until 2012.

Pappas also revealed that the Washington lawmakers were shocked at the severity of the law.

“It has never been enforced, but that is no excuse to have a stupid law on the books.”

“The idea that you are making criminals of players on their computers is illogical especially since the state has regulated card rooms and tribal casinos.”

The outlook for pro online poker legislation was bleak following the failure to get Barney Frank’s bill off the ground during the lame duck session of Congress late last year.

However, recent lobbying seems to have highlighted the need for federal legislation which would create a regulated and licensed framework.

Pappas admits the PPA still champion federal based measures and does not harbor hopes for an intrastate framework in Washington.

“The licensing and regulation will be a much harder sell. No one knows exactly where the tribes would come down on that and the PPA still has broader concerns in pursuing state by state models.”