California Continues To Ponder Online PokerCommittee Vote Planned For Later This Month |
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Lawmakers in California’s Assembly Appropriations Committee held an hour-long hearing Wednesday on a bill seeking to legalize and regulate online poker in the Golden State. No vote was held.
It was the latest public meeting in a debate that has dragged on for about a decade. However, Assemblymember Adam Gray, sponsor of the legislation, reiterated that the proposal has unprecedented support in California.
As it stands right now, only a handful of powerful tribal groups with gaming, led by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, oppose the bill, while other tribes and the state’s commercial card rooms are in support. The state’s horseracing industry is behind the measure after the proposal was amended earlier this year to give horseracing a roughly $60 million annual subsidy in exchange for the tracks not vying for online poker licenses.
While the tax rate and licensing fees are still topics of discussion, the roadblock remaining is centered on “suitability.” The tribes that oppose the bill don’t think PokerStars, a platform with roughly 70 percent of the worldwide market, should be a player in the space because it offered games to Californians, and also acquired a database of customers, before online poker was approved by the Legislature.
Lawmakers said Wednesday that a piece of legislation shouldn’t target one company. “Market share should be the least of the state’s concerns,” Gray said, adding that establishing consumer protections is the primary goal of the bill.
The suitability amendments that Gray hashed out earlier this month will need to be revisited if a consensus is going to be reached. Up until now, the work has always been towards a consensus, but the bill presumably could move forward without one. Gray said that in the next week or two he will put "the finishing touches on suitability.”
At one point in the hearing he said that online poker is a “highly-charged and complicated issue,” but later admitted that he feels that “it’s not as complicated as people like to make it.”
“I feel confident in the product I brought here today,” Gray said. “It has taken a decade, but I think we can get it done this year.”
A vote on the proposal is planned for later this month.
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