Rally at the State House

I dragged my ass out of bed this morning and got over to the State House around 8:30 AM for a rally, organized by the Poker Players’ Alliance and by Harvard Law School professor Charlie Nesson and his Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.

Since they were going to have coffee and donuts, I literally rolled out of bed, put some clothes on, and left my apartment in a showerless, foodless, caffeineless fog. Unfortunately, this resulted in my not checking my camera batteries or bringing spares. The damn thing was dead, so I don’t have any pictures of my own, though there should be some up online soon.

We were there in opposition to a portion of a casinos bill, endorsed by Governor Patrick, that would make playing online poker a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine. As Drew Lesofski, the PPA’s grassroots organizer, pointed out, this is worse than the penalty for drunk driving.

Especially troubling is that no one will admit to backing this provision of the legislation. As Nesson writes in an op/ed piece for today’s Boston Globe:

“Who wrote the bill’s strange provision to criminalize online games? The governor’s people say it wasn’t him (even though it’s nominally his bill). The Las Vegas casino interests say it’s not them. So who put it in there? Who stands behind it now? Perhaps both questions will be put to the governor today, at the Legislature’s public hearing. Inquiring minds want to know.”

I found our crew just across the street from the State House, on the Boston Commons. There looked to be about a hundred people milling around, many of them in hard hats. It didn’t seem implausible to me that online poker would be popular among the blue collar crowd.

After beelining for coffee and a Boston Cream donut, I found Charlie and his partner-in-crime as GPSTS, Andrew Woods, and congratulated them on the turnout. They introduced me to Drew Lesofski and also to Randy Castonguay, the PPA’s Massachusetts director.

A few minutes later, someone called out for everyone to follow him, and I dutifully followed the tide of bodies until I realized I was the only one not wearing a hard hat. Apparently the union people were actually here in support of the casinos bill, which would create tens of thousands of new union jobs. That didn’t stop them from stealing our coffee and donuts, though.

When I rejoined my fellow online poker advocates, I was disappointed to find that we numbered no more than forty. We did, however, stand out in our bright red t-shirts that declared “Poker is Not a Crime”. As I said, I didn’t have my camera, but you can see Nesson and others wearing the shirts in this photo that accompanied a Globe article on the hearing.

Also eye-catching was the cardboard “poker prison” built by Randy’s wife and mother, who contributed some badly needed estrogen to our contingent.

Randy and Charlie both spoke to our humble mass for a few minutes, in vastly contrasting styles. Randy was all energy, shamelessly barking into a bullhorn about freedom, the right to play poker, and a man he knew with congenitive heart failure who claimed that online poker was the only joy left in his life. He came across as a little cheesy, but I think that’s probably an asset for a job like his, and I certainly admire his willingness to show so much spirit despite the lackluster response from the crowd.

Charlie was the just the opposite, soft-spoken and contemplative. Personally, I found his arguments about the educational value of poker as a strategic game and a model for business and economics much more convincing. He concluded with a call-and-response chant that we were going to use when the governor walked past. Raising his voice for the only time during his speech, he shouted, “Now is the time!”

“Poker’s not a crime!” we all shouted back.

Then it was time for him and Randy to head into the State House for the hearing. About half of our number went in as well, but I had no interest at all in watching the open hearing, which Andrew Woods warned me could take many, many hours. So I stayed outside as the union congregation filed past us.

Imagine, if you will, a few dozen scrawny internet geeks facing down a few hundred burly guys in hard hats shouting jeers at us. “Nice turnout!” was the one that hurt the most. The excuse was made that it was 9AM the morning after St. Patty’s day and much of the college student/frat boy crowd was hung over, but I’m sure 99% of those union guys spent yesterday ****faced as well. They were just more passionate and better organized. Oh and probably getting paid overtime to be there.

Governor Patrick never did come by, but I did meet a few people from 2+2, including two pretty cool guys who guy by the screen names Self Made and Schwza. We talked poker for a while and considered going inside, but the union guys were lined up out the door and all the way down to the street waiting to get in, and the guards announced that no one else would be admitted. So, we went our separate ways.

I’ll post an update with more photos and links as they become available.