I probably have a bias here since I'm in the Seattle area, but as it stands, this means that Washington state, which holds roughly 20% of the nation's pinball tournaments would be contributing around 8k to the national tournament prize pool yet we still only get 1 state representative that could go to take it. Many states with very small player bases may be contributing only a couple hundred dollars, yet their state still gets the same representation as the states that put up a large chunk of that money. That imbalance seems a bit sketchy.

Also, how would they plan on doing this in states like Wisconsin, where it's illegal to "gamble" on stuff like this? I know that the tournament itself is still unable to give money to the winners, but they are still contributing to a prize pool that they may get at the national tournament. Is that legally feasible?

Also, as mentioned a few different times in this thread, it would be very simple to add a yearly membership flag to a player's profile which may allow for a one time membership fee rather than consistently charging throughout the year. There are many ways to do this that would give much better than an "Amazing" 40% approval rating...