The bill to legalise Internet poker in California has been dropped this year.
A bill to legalise Internet poker in California has been dropped for 2014, reports the L.A. Times.
The bill has been shelved for a year after Democratic state Senator Lou Correa of Santa Ana, said that there was not enough time left in the legislative session to refine the bill for a vote.
Senator Correa is the chairman of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee, which is responsible for screening all gambling measures. His decision to shelve the bill for at least a year is a huge blow to the proposal that has already been debated for five years in California’s Legislature.
The Senator made the decision after deciding that as there was only a month left in the legislative session, there was simply not enough time to make the major changes, and to get consensus from Indian casino operators and card clubs to hold a vote this year.
He said: “Internet poker is an important public policy. We need to make sure it’s done right.”
It was predicted that the bill would not make it through this year by Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose, who is a leading expert on gambling law. He argued that, because it is an election year it was unlikely to be passed, since it is controversial. He also said that the bill was problematic because disagreement remains among Indian tribes and other gambling interests about what a new law should look like. He argues also because there are so many tribes in the country that they don’t agree on anything.
Professor Rose said: “The politics of this aren’t right for this to get rushed through by the end of this year. The state is so large and there are so many tribes and they don’t agree on anything.”
While 13 tribes recently announced they had overcome differences and finally agreed on a possible bill, other tribal casino operators remain opposed, and there have been other setbacks.
Billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson launched a campaign earlier this year against the legalisation of Internet gambling in California, paying $309,000 during the last nine months to powerhouse lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs to fight any proposal and enlisting former Assembly Speakers Fabian Nunez and Willie Brown in the crusade against online gambling.
Professor Rose believes that Internet poker will be legalised at some point in California as it is already in Nevada and New Jersey.
This post currently has no comments, be the first.
Leave a Comment