Poker Players Alliance Lobbying Expenditures Drop to All Time Low in 2017

Founded in 2005 with a mission that focuses on lobbying efforts to establish a secure and regulated environment for U.S. poker players, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is on pace to spend roughly $120,000 on lobbying expenditures this year, which would be the lowest amount in its 13-year history.

The PPA has spent just $70,000 on lobbying through August 7 of this year, a far cry from a decade ago when the non-profit organization spent $2,080,000 in an effort to sway legislators. That was the year following passage of the UIGEA in 2006 that prohibited financial institutions from accepting transactions pertaining to online gambling sites.

The extrapolated total of $120,000 for 2017 would fall just below the $130,000 spent by the PPA on lobbying last year, which was the previous all time low. The grassroots organization spent double that amount in its first year of existence in 2005, according to the OpenSecrets.org database that keeps an eye on political donations and the lobbying industry.

Here are the amounts spent on lobbying by the PPA every year since its inception, including a graph that perhaps better illustrates the steep decline of recent years:

That totals $11,978,000 spent on lobbying in 13 years and we still only have regulated online poker in three states. On the other hand, Sheldon Adelson and his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling have been unable to make progress on their anti-online gambling agenda that includes the Restoration of America's Wire Act, thanks to the work of the PPA.

Also, let's not forget that the PPA was instrumental in the remission process that saw former Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, and UltimateBet players receive millions of dollars in funds.

Donations Waning

As a non-profit, the PPA relies on donations to advance its efforts "to serve as the unified voice on behalf of Americans' right to play poker," as stated on its website. But taking a peek at revenue totals made public by tax-exempt organizations such as the PPA, it appears that the drop in lobbying expenditures the last couple years likely coincides with a decrease in donations from the poker-playing public as well as contributions from titans of the gaming industry.

Although PPA revenue totals are not yet available for 2016 and 2017, they are for the other years that the organization has been in operation. Here are the totals, and also the amount of that revenue that was derived from PPA membership:

   PPA Total Revenue    Membership Dues

2015 $2,355,107    $6,994

2014    $1,614,190    $23,370

2013    $3,647,655    $28,991

2012    $3,602,146    $25,893

2011    $5,489,952    $52,115

2010    $5,284,074    $50,290

2009    $5,831,975    $48,798

2008    $4,381,831    NA

2007    $3,665,967    NA

2006    $1,767,848    NA

2005    $1,191,509    NA    

As is evident, revenue has dropped off considerably in the last two years that totals are available and I'd be willing to bet that the 2016 and 2017 reports would show an even greater decline. We need only look at the lobbying expenditures for the two most recent years to see that the amount of money rolling in to the PPA at this time is nowhere near what it was during the top years of 2009-11.

The PPA says on its website that its "ranks have grown to over one million poker players and enthusiasts nationwide." The term "ranks" certainly can't mean membership, because with $6,994 collected in dues in the last year (2015) that data is available, that would put the average dues of each of its reputed 1 million members at less than one penny.