Gary Carson writes on my speaking at the Poker Players Alliance event next week:

Balko should ask PPA where they get their money.

I wonder if he knows it’s not from “members”.

PPA isn’t for legal poker, they are for heavily regulated poker with strong barriers to entry for providers of poker games.

Balko actually writes for Reason and calls himself a libertarian. He should be ashamed of himself for supporting those people.

Whoa. I don’t agree with PPA on everything. I’m only speaking at their event. I’ve spoken before a lot of groups that I didn’t entirely agree with.

In fact, I’ve publicly said in the past that I don’t agree with PPA’s efforts to carve out an exemption for poker as a “game of skill” in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. I believe poker is primarily a game of skill. But I think all Internet gambling should be legalized. Hell, I believe all gambling should be legal.

As for regulation and barriers to entry, well, you fight your battles one at a time. The best bill in Congress right now is the Frank bill, which calls for complete legalization, albeit with a heavy federal regulatory structure. Yeah, that’s a compromise. And even it doesn’t have a chance in hell of becoming law.

I don’t know enough about PPA to respond to Carson’s allegations about funding and motives. They invited me to speak on a panel on Capitol Hill in front of an influential audience, with no strings attached about what I’m allowed to say. I took them up on the offer.

Also, for the record, it is not a paid speech.

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