Nebraska Live Poker Bill Gets Mixed Signals From State's Attorney GeneralProposal To Make Poker A Business In The State Might Need Changes |
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Since January, a lawmaker in Nebraska has been pushing a bill that would classify poker as a game of skill and make it legal for some businesses to host games in the state.
It’s the first time any lawmaker has tried to legalize poker individually in Nebraska.
This week, at the request of a poker opponent in the Nebraska legislature, the state’s Attorney General’s office released an opinion that didn’t give much guidance on whether legalizing poker would be OK with regards to the state’s constitution, which explicitly forbids games of chance.
Assistant Attorney General L. Jay Bartel and Attorney General Doug Peterson believe that, thanks to legal precedent, there is a big difference between draw poker and Texas hold’em, with the former being more chanced-based and the latter being predominately skill, according to the opinion. Legislative Bill 619, which is sponsored by Nebraska Sen. Tyson Larson, seeks to make both variants of poker legal under the assertion that both are skill-based games.
The present situation suggests the bill might be too ambitious for Nebraska.
As noted by the Journal Star, the opinion indicates that there might be a constitutional difference between draw and hold’em in Nebraska, which would make the bill as written a bit murky for lawmakers still mulling it over. The bill reportedly is set to be debated more fully at some point this year and could be amended further. Earlier this year, Larson told Card Player the bill is evolving.
Despite the muddled nature of the opinion, Larson reportedly views the Attorney General’s position as good news for his proposed legislation, since the state’s top lawyer is very anti-gambling. The conclusion of the opinion provides some optimism for the poker bill.
“While the Legislature’s recognition of draw and community card poker as games of skill in LB 619 would likely be found by a court to be an improper attempt to authorize games of chance…we cannot say with complete certainty that LB 619 is unconstitutional on this basis,” the opinion said.
Here’s a look at the Attorney General’s full opinion on the poker bill:
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