Judge from Florida continues his battle to introduce online poker

The US online gambling industry continues to growth in just a few of the states that went for online gambling legislation, such as Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey. Some others, like Pennsylvania, are still suffering from the political congestion that does not allow the market to see the light. However, politicians’ ambition is not only the main obstacle that refrains the online gambling market from opening its doors. Some blame it on the same online poker community, which is not fighting hard enough to bring up this issue to a higher level. From Florida, one of the main online poker advocates, as well as poker blogger, Michael Shapiro, has been fighting to introduce his online poker bill in the state. Florida will see a new online poker bill during the upcoming legislative session. But again, the online poker community has to step up to support this and other online gambling bills, trying to overlook for once the Black Friday incident from years ago.

Martin Shapiro believes that the state could consider the new online gambling bill as numbers are on his side: “There is the opposition of Disney and of the conservative legislators, who oppose any type of gambling expansion in the state. There is the influence of Sheldon Adelson with the Republican leaders in Florida, and his self-serving campaign to outlaw Internet gambling. There is the challenge of getting the Florida pari-mutuel owners to back our bill - they want Internet poker, but are currently focused on getting slot machines first. And there is the complexity and cost of getting any sort of legislation introduced and moved through the legislature. But if I had to choose one obstacle as the biggest, that makes or breaks the campaign, I would say it is getting poker players themselves to stand up and tell the Florida legislators that they want it. If just one percent were participating in our social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and by emails to the Florida lawmakers, we would be much further along. We do not have big dollars behind us. This is a truly grassroots effort – which means that we must have as many voices as possible letting the lawmakers know that their voters, as well as poker players from other states and countries, want this legislation. It is not a campaign we can win without the active participation of the players.”