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- Latest bill to legalize online poker in state won’t be voted on by Wednesday’s legislative deadline
- Early bill’s sponsor has since been convicted of voter fraud
- Conflicts of interest, mostly tied to the world’s largest online poker room PokerStars entering the market, have prevented passage of legislation to date
- New legislation cannot be introduced until 2017
The effort to get a bill passed in the world’s 8th largest economy, California, that would legalize online poker has been an eight-year process and yet again we see such a measure dead on arrival. The latest reincarnation is AB 2863.
It was in late 2007 when we first met up with Melanie Brenner of the now defunct Poker Voters of America on board a Virgin America flight bound for San Francisco. She advised then that her organization would be tasked with pushing forward legislation to bring Web poker to the Golden State.
For the better part of three years, that was the case, however, one of the early bill’s chief sponsors, state representative Roderick Wright, ended up being convicted of eight counts of voter fraud and ultimately sentenced to ninety days' confinement and banned from public office for the rest of his life.
Dirty politicians aside, conflicting interests continue to prevent online poker legislation in the state from passing. The deadline for a vote on AB 2863 this legislative session is Wednesday with online poker absent from any vote.
To be fair, 2016 looked like the most promising year for legalized Internet poker. The primary sticking point: Half the parties who have a say don’t want PokerStars entering the California market. The other half are in partnership with Stars.
The world’s largest online poker site had amassed its enormous customer base primarily a result of operating in so-called “black” or “grey” markets, more specifically the USA from 2006 to 2011 after federal legislation was passed prohibiting Web card rooms.
Assemblymen Adam Gray (D-District 21) sponsored AB 2863, which would have charged operators $12.5 million per license and taxed gross revenues at 10 percent.
The odds are good, new legislation will be drafted come early 2017, thus starting the process anew for a 9th straight year.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
