Andy Bloch Speaks at Netroots Nation

Andy Bloch and the Poker Players Alliance spoke at the Netroots Nation 2010 Conference this week to discuss online gambling and poker. The crux of Bloch’s message was to point out the importance of Internet freedom, even to those who weren’t directly impacted by it or fully understand what that freedom means.

Bloch began his speech by pointing out that activities that are legal offline should, under most circumstances, also be legal online.

“Unfortunately,” Bloch said, “that’s not always the case when it comes to gambling.”

“Gambling is legal, in some form or another, in 48 of the 50 states. I’m a professional poker player and poker is legal in approximately 40 of the 50 states,” Bloch continued. “Unfortunately, the Federal Government and some state governments have singled out gambling, and online gambling, for attack.”

Bloch made the argument that the freedom to play online poker was an important issue to non-poker players too, for three reasons. Bloch cited the fact that allowing other gambling to be legal while online poker remained illegal gave the government too much discretion over which activities could be legal online. Secondly, he pointed out that efforts to ban online poker have side effects for the rest of the Internet as well. Finally, Bloch said that other groups could look at the tactics used by poker proponents to defend their rights as an example for later fights.

“If you are interested in internet freedom, you can learn a lot from poker’s abilities to organize and defend their basic rights,” he said.

Later, Bloch issued a press release with the PPA to further expand his discussion on online poker.

“We need to make sure that both politicians and activists are aware of the ridiculous attempts to prohibit online poker,” said Bloch. “They are forgoing billions in tax revenue when our budgets are most in need, rejecting the opportunity to properly regulate online poker and ignoring their responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable members of our society.”

The PPA is a political organization designed to help protect the rights on poker players. It claims over one million members, and has been engaging in lobbying efforts since 2006.

Netroots Nation is a political convention attended primarily by progressive political activists. Originally organized by Daily Kos, this year’s conference in Las Vegas marked the 5^th annual Netroots Nation, and attracted prominent speakers such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Elizabeth Warren.