The Obama Administration is not building a death star. Whether or not it supports online poker, however, is likely to remain a mystery.
An online petition at the “We the People” section of the White House website seeks to get a declaration from the administration on online poker. The section allows people to pose questions to the administration on any subject and will prompt a reply from the White House if it gains 100,000 signatures.
So far, the online poker question has less than 4,000 signature in about its first 10 days on the site—the questions are up for 30 days.
In the past the signature threshold was lower, but was raised after some questions like “Is the U.S. building a death star?” slipped through. The administration’s answer was “No,” by the way.
The petition requests an official stance from the Obama Administration regarding the issue of online gaming and poker. “Protect internet freedom,” the petition begins, “Oppose efforts in Congress to force states to shut down state-authorized poker and gaming.”
The body of the petition encourages the Obama Administration to oppose the “Restoration of America’s Wire Act” and any Senate bills that would look to ban online gaming and poker on the federal level.
The petition was created by R.M. from Kentucky, but was seen as coming from the Poker Players Alliance.
Even if the petition does see a rally and gets the 100,000 signatures, there’s no assurance the White House will respond. There’s actually a petition on the site to get the White House to answer several other questions that did get the 100,000 signatures, but the administration remained silent on.
