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With only weeks until the 9th annual European iGaming Congress and Expo (known also as the EiG Online Gambling Conference) slated to be held in Barcelona, Spain, organizers are said to be scrambling to replace California State Senator Roderick Wright, who was indicted last week on 8 counts voter fraud and other alleged improprieties. Wright was behind a movement to legalize online poker in that state.
Wright wasn’t just any speaker, he was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at this year’s show.
The Senator was to appear in a California court just days before the show kicks off. Wright posted the necessary $45,000 to get released from prison just before the weekend.
As a result of Wright’s indictment, legalized online poker in the state of California would not be occurring during the remaining year’s legislative period. Others in the state Senate claim that his initiative was never part of any agenda to begin with.
As of Monday morning, the disgraced Senator was still listed as keynote speaker, which has many anticipated attendees scratching their heads.
His initiatives are listed as:
• Learn the latest on intrastate internet poker in California and fi nd out if it’s the right market for your company to go into
• Find out the relationship between the key US and California stakeholders and learn what B2C and B2B opportunities there might be for your company to establish a foothold in the USA
• Prepare to claim a share of the biggest iGaming market there is and be
ready for the roll-out to other states that might follow suit
California State SenatePro Tem Darrell Steinberg dispelled the notion that Wright’s online poker initiative was receiving any serious review on the political front.
“The chatter you're hearing is from those who are going to profit from Internet gaming,'' she said. “It's not a legislative leader conversation; it is not part of the budget negotiations.”
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
