California senator cries out for online poker

Posted on June 25, 2010 by CasinoBazar

With it's US$20bn budget deficit and 1m online poker players,California might be the first state to legalise internet poker.

Talking at GIGSE 2010 in Montreal, Canada, California Senator Roderick Wright said that the system being discussed now would see one, two or multiple central operator hubs that would register players, store their accounts and interact with the state onder the licence agreement.

It is still unclear how manty hubs might be authorised by the California legislature in the potential legislation.Wright said the potential revenue to be realised in the Golden State as ranging from $50m to $1.5bn a year, depending on how many players will migrate from the off-shore sites to those licensed by the state and on the future growth of the player base. An important factor in the legalisation process is the potential loss of the revenue from tribal gaming.

"It is my position that not one state authorised iipoker (intrastate internet poker) game will be played until the courts rule on whether or not iipoker violates tribal gaming exclusivity and, correspondingly, if iipoker places tribal governments revenue sharing with the state at risk," Wright said.

The legalisation process will also need to address a number of policy and political issues, which include consumer protection, age verification, geo-location, fraud, transparency, potential conflicts with other laws and agreements in the state, operator vetting process, the impact of the iipoker on the existing gaming operations in the state and the revenue projections for the state. Wright added: "Until there is a critical mass of support (amongst stakeholders) for any specific proposal, it is unlikely that any authorisation proposal will be successful".

Commenting on the federal bills that aim to legalise internet gaming, Wright applauds the 'opt out' provisions that will allow California to analyse the implications of the federal law and to determine whether it's best for California to participate in the federal system or to develop its own. Regardless of the developments on Capitol Hill, "lt may be in the state's best interest to enact iipoker legislation before the federal government authorises online poker," he said.