California poker bill dead for another year
Senator Lou Correa has pulled SB 1366 citing lack of time to refine the bill before the end of the current legislative session
Hopes of a regulated internet poker market in California this year have suffered a huge blow after one of two bills seeking to license the activity in the state was pulled by its sponsor Senator Lou Correa on Wednesday.
A second bill “ AB 2291 “ sponsored by Senator Reggie Jones-Sawyer still remains in play, however it has not moved through the committee process and no hearing date has been set. With the Senate bill dead it seems unlikely the Assembly bill will progress any further.
Correa, sponsor of SB 1366 and chairman of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee which oversees all gambling measures in the state, said there was not enough time to refine the bill in the current legislative session, which closes on 31 August. Any changes to the bill would have to be made by 22 August at the latest.
“Internet poker is an important public policy. We need to make sure it’s done right,” Correa told the Los Angeles Times.
While the largest tribes and card rooms reached consensus over how internet poker should play out in the state, questions still remained over whether the race tracks would be allowed to enter the market as well as language regarding ‘bad actors’ that would have barred PokerStars from licensure.
The death of the California bill means that no new states have legalised and regulated egaming in 2014, with just Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey currently live. Bills are in place in New York and Pennsylvania, but are unlikely to be considered until next year.