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An example
Heres a letter that a lawyer friend made up to send off . Feel free to edit it to meet your needs .....
Dear –insert Senator’s name here- :
I am writing to urge you to review the inclusion of the UIGEA into the SAFE Ports Act last year and to request that you make a serious effort to have this language removed. The SAFE Ports Act is vital for the safety of this nation, and the manner in which the UIGEA was included in it reeks of corruption and pandering. It is an insult to this country that Senator Frist and his supporters used the security of this nation as a tool for trying to drum up support from the very few people who believe that Americans should not be allowed to pursue their interests in the privacy of their homes with their own funds and ambitions. This addition to the Act was slipped in, literally hours before the Act went to vote, with absolutely no chance for debate or input. It represents American politics at their very worst.
The issue here goes far beyond mere gambling on the internet. It is an issue of personal freedom – something we as Americans hold as one of our most precious rights. Even if you are not a poker player, surely you can agree that those who are should be permitted to pursue their interests, just as you should be able to pursue yours. The argument that the availability of online gaming promotes addiction is as silly as saying that liquor stores promote alcoholism. We tried banning alcohol in the early part of the 20th Century. It did not work and it is remembered as one of the most colossal failures in the history of the Nation’s politics.
Similarly, the issue of online gaming being dangerous because it is unregulated is also without merit. People risk their funds when they go to an online site, but they do so willingly. Nobody makes them do it. The transfers of funds are as secure as any in the online industry, whether money is being transferred to an online gaming site or whether it is being transferred to Amazon.com to pay for a purchase. Further, many of the sites are publicly traded and are regulated by the authorities in their own countries. Still others submit to regulation through trade industries. If the issue the US government has is with the lack of United States regulation, then the United States should legalize online gaming and regulate it. The United States market is the largest in the world by far, and there is every reason to believe that the gaming sites would submit to US regulation and taxation in order to gain the government’s approval to tap into such a lucrative market. I know this sounds like the most basic of logic, but the response so far has been to attempt to ban online gaming rather than regulate it.
The bottom line is this. You went to Washington to protect us, your constituents. I know that when you went you firmly believed in those principals which have made this country great. I believe you still do. One of those principals is that we get to choose our own paths in life. We get to make our own decisions. The government has no place making those decisions for us. Please look more closely at the UIGEA and see it for what it is: patronizing, insulting, and demeaning to those of us who just like to relax in the company of friends and play a friendly game of poker.
Sincerely,
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