Ggb Magazine Podcast

For more than a decade, John Pappas was the face of legalized online poker in the United States as he led the Poker Players Alliance during a period of the introduction of legal online gaming in the U.S. and a crackdown on sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars following the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. His positive message eventually accounted for 4 million members of the PPA who helped lobby states to legalize online gaming and poker. Today, he’s also helping to promote Idea Growth, an organization founded by attorney Jeff Ifrah to advocate legal online gaming. He spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros at G2E in October. (To view a video of this podcast see below). GGB: You were involved in the legalization of online gaming, specifically online poker years ago. What was it like in those days? Pappas: I can remember going into meetings in those days and suggesting that the legalization of online gaming would be a good thing, and just being met with a chorus of “it’s no