World News Highlight - July 23, 2009
This week poker advocates have been swarming Washington D.C. to talk to their legislators about the right to play poker and to play it online during National Poker Week.
National Poker Week was declared by the Poker Players Alliance, which has been working to protect poker players' rights at the state level as well as the federal level. This week several top members of the organization such as Annie Duke and Greg Raymer were in D.C. to support the cause.
Not only did they stop in to talk to Congressmen and tour the city, Greg Raymer also took the time for an online chat with the Washington Post. You can read about Raymer's take on National Poker Week and poker playing in general here.
While people in the United States are working on changing legislation reguarding online poker, it was reported that in Russia poker is becoming more restricted.
A government order in Russia has stripped poker of its sports status, which had previously given the game an exemption when the new gambling restrictions went into effect this month as well. The Russian Federation of Sport Poker made a statement complaining the new restriction leaves it unclear whether amateur poker players are now breaking the law.
Read more about Russia's new stance on poker in The Moscow Times.