Iowa online gambling bill approved in Senate
Poker-only SB 1068 heads for Senate vote after subcommittee meeting yesterday.
A bill which would make online poker legal in the state of Iowa has been approved by a Senate subcommittee and now heads to the Senate for debate.
The proposed law, sponsored by Democrat Senator Jeff Danielson, would permit the 21 state-licensed casinos to operate poker sites but all other forms of online gambling banned.
SB 1068 was introduced to the State Government Committee in January, which had to approve the proposals before it could progress to a Senate vote.
It is currently identical to last year’s attempt, a bill that passed the Senate on a 29 to 20 vote last year but was never considered in the House.
According to local news source Radio Iowa, Danielson said yesterday: “Both the technology and the cultural acceptance has gotten ahead of our own ability to have a decent policy for what to do about it.”
“To do nothing, by default, I think is both wrong morally because it puts Iowans in a position they shouldn’t be in,” he said. “But also it’s wrong when you look at the economics of what’s occurring in this area.”
Danielson’s SF 2275 bill passed a Senate committee hearing in March 2012, while a similar bill failed in 2011, both unable to pass the funnel stage of the legislative process.
Last year the state of Iowa released a study that found that regulated online poker could attract between $3m and $13m in revenues a year.