PPA Posts 2005 Financials

The Poker Players Alliance has heeded the growing call from the poker world to post their financial report, in the form of their federal not-for-profit income tax return for the year 2005. This return covers something like eight months of PPA activity, and can be viewed in its entirety here, for those so inclined.

We are happy to report that the return contains no major surprises, even if all of the questions raised in our previous post on the PPA have yet to be fully answered. Nonetheless, PPA president Michael Bolcerek and the PPA in general should be commended for coughing up the information.

Here's the biggest outtakes from the return, covering the time span from the PPA's founding in April of 2005 to the end of that year. All contributions were categorized as "direct public support," and during 2005 the PPA took in $1,191,061.

Skipping over the housekeeping stuff, here's where the majority of the funds went:

Advertising and Marketing: $277,718
Lobbying (paid to The Federalist Group): $220,000
Legal Fees: $110,966
Other Salaries and Wages: $110,314
Compensation of Officers, Directors, etc.: $53,016

In addition, the PPA carried forward over $350,000 in cash to 2006, much of which was likely earmarked for the first six months of 2006 Federalist Group lobbying, which came to $280,000.