SOURCE: The Associated Press

(Washington, D.C.) — Internet poker players are raising the stakes in Washington.

Threatened by a federal law that restricts online gambling, the Poker Players Alliance, a two-year-old lobbying group that says it represents 800,000 poker enthusiasts nationwide, plans on pressing Congress this week to consider several new bills that would exempt poker from the law or regulate the gaming industry.

It's legal to play poker online, but the law made it illegal for U.S. banks and credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling businesses outside the United States. Supporters of the ban say Internet betting can be addictive and potentially drain people's savings.

But John Pappas, the group's executive director, said the law only forced several public British companies — such as PartyGaming PLC and 888 Holdings PLC — that had financial and age safeguards in place from the U.S. online poker market.

"The idea that we can kind of stop people from doing this seems a bit irrational," said Pappas, who estimates there are between 15 million to 23 million U.S. Internet poker players.

The group is flying in 100 members, including several poker champions, such as Chris Moneymaker, to lobby lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday to get poker exempted from the law, which already excludes online horse races and lotteries and fantasy sports.

The group also backs a bill to license and regulate Internet gaming, in general. A small tax on online poker operators could net the government at least a couple of billion dollars in revenue, Pappas said.

Chaired by former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and now lobbyist, the group has also upped its lobbying ante, spending $640,000 in the first six months this year, compared with $540,000 in all of 2006.