The new President of the USA Barack Obama has promised to listen to his compatriots. Therefore, the White House has been attentively considering the ways to let Americans speak, an endeavor carried out by a pool on a website. Regarding poker, the citizens have given a very plain response, listing the legalization of online poker as one of their main concerns.

Under the leadership of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the U.S. poker players, many of which are deprived of the game because of the UIGEA, got organised to coordinate their votes on one proposal.

Thus the proposal “to boost U.S. economy with legal online poker” found itself at the forefront of technological concerns listed in the “Citizens Briefing Book”, on a new site dedicated to the claims of American citizens.

This website, set up in the early days of Obama administration, has allowed 125,000 users to vote for 44,000 ideas suggested by the President and his team. The pool collected 1,400,000 votes, each vote matching 10 points. The proposal on legalization of online poker has collected 46,000 points, a total which is the 11th largest overall.

A surprising result after all, but not for John Pappas, the Executive Director of the PPA: “Poker players from all over the country have spoken with one voice to protect the game they love, and the White House has heard this message. We hope that the Administration will listen and act in response to this clear message sent through the Citizen’s Briefing Book: legalize online poker through a suitable regulation”.

The content of the proposal includes plain and unequivocal specifications. Most of the Americans who responded to this survey demand the right to legally play, without fear of prosecution; a reform of the law to exempt poker - a game of skill - from UIGEA. They have also spoken out for a law meant to “boost the economy by allowing American companies and American players earn money and pay taxes instead of sending the business offshore”.

A recent study by the lobbying group American Gaming Association has revealed that 2% of adults surveyed were playing online. These results are consistent with estimates of the PPA that between 10 and 15 million Americans regularly play on the internet. Still according to the PPA, the legalization of online poker could bring 3 billion dollars annually to the Administration.