Not long ago, dozens of PPA (Poker Player Alliance) members, online poker players, pros and gambling supporters invaded the Republican Platform Committee's official message board asking the GOP to ease the restrictive online gaming policies approved by the Congress in 2006 and to speak their mind and discuss the possibility of regulating and taxing certain online gaming activities such as online poker.

 

So far, the PPA effort to convince the Republican Party to drop its inflexible position seems to be bearing its first fruit, and now the GOP Platform Committee confirmed that it has removed several references and allusions regarding online gambling from the sketch platform that will be approved before the GOP convention. The decision of removing certain suggestions confirming the GOP’s plan to enforce the UIGEA is considered a maneuver to call the attention of online gaming supporters, however, no one knows yet if this decision will really have an impact among the online gambling community, which has repeatedly expressed it support to the Democrat Candidate Barak Obama.

The use of tough words condemning online gambling has been an essential tactic strategy to hook up the votes of the most conservative sectors of the United States, including the Christian Right Wing and other moralist factions. In 2004 the Republican platform included a series of references that made obvious what was their position regarding the possibility of legalizing gambling.

 

"Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support legislation prohibiting gambling over the Internet or in student athletics by student athletes who are participating in competitive sports," stated the platform.

 

That language has been removed this year, and while it is a small step, some people see this action as the correct decision, other people, however, still a little unconvinced and doubtful about the real motives behind the move.

"The Republicans are just doing this to win an election. They have continually shot down Legislation that was offered up to regulate Internet gambling. Now they are going to pretend that those votes didn't happen. People had better be cautious about taking them at their word," said John Libscoll, an online poker player who has conducted a series of investigations on the effects of Internet gambling.