Home / Poker News December 2010 / California to follow in New Jersey's path to legal intrastate poker?
California to follow in New Jersey's path to legal intrastate poker?
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2010-12-02 11:45
California has been one of the states to flirt with the idea of legal intrastate poker for a while. As a matter of fact, rumors about possible moves aimed to legalize online poker in the Golden State have surfaced as soon as the UIGEA was passed. There was one big hurdle that California lawmakers couldn't overcome back then though: the opposition of Indian tribes that feared that their privileged position as far as gambling and poker was concerned in the state was jeopardized by
online poker.
That hurdle seems to have been cleared now. According to Melanie Brenner, director of the Poker Voters of America trade association, great progress has recently been made regarding the attitude of the native tribes towards possible legal intrastate online poker in the Golden State.
Now that New Jersey has provided proof that legal, taxed and regulated online poker could indeed be implemented, the tribes seem to have changed their minds as well. Melanie Brenner says that there are only a few details left to iron out, before the Indians throw their full support behind the online poker and gambling cause.
Once the tribes’ support is secured, the possible online gambling and poker bill is likely to go through the legislative apparatus just as fast as it did in New Jersey.
According to Brenner, supporters of legal online poker in California can count on the governor to sign the bill into law as soon as it clears all other hurdles.
As expected, New Jersey's move to legalize and tax online gambling and poker has had quite a bit of echo with other states interested in rounding up their budgets. After California, Florida is apparently considering a similar move as well. Now that the ice has been broken, it will be interesting to see how many other states jump on the online poker bandwagon. Provided enough jurisdictions legalize online poker and gambling, the “good” old UIGEA may just lose its bite, without ever being challenged on a federal level.
