The long and tedious battle to make online poker legal in the United States again looks set to receive a massive boost after an i-poker bill to regulate online play in California was unanimously passed by the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee late last week.
If the bill goes on to pass through Senate, California would become just the fourth state after Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey to regulate online poker since the industry was shut down country-wide in 2011.
More importantly, it would be the biggest step forward by far given California’s population of almost 40 million people makes it America’s most populous state – almost four times bigger than Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey combined.
Although an earlier i-poker bill passed through the Committee last year before stalling, the new bill is considered a much better chance of coming into law because it specifically addresses regulatory concerns that had been overlooked previously.
It could also signal a return for PokerStars. The online poker giant was one of three sites specifically blacklisted by US authorities in 2011, having controversially continued to operate following the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. The UIGEA made it illegal for financial institutions to process transactions from US players on known gaming sites – effectively making online poker illegal.
The new bill avoided singling out any sites that should remain banned if it comes into law.
