Home / Poker News December 2012 / New Jersey Gambling Bill Passed by Senatemous Poker Series
New Jersey Gambling Bill Passed by Senatemous Poker Series
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-12-21 11:35
A couple of days ago we told you about how the New Jersey State Assembly passed an
online poker bill and how it only needed to clear the hurdle of the State Senate to advance onto Gov. Chris Christie’s desk again. We can now tell you that the bill was indeed passed by the senate as predicted by Sen. Ray Lesniak, the main sponsor of the initiative. The vote was a rather overwhelming 33-3 in favor of the bill which would legalize and regulate the game of online poker in the Garden State. The specially amended bill would also allow online poker operator
PokerStars to purchase a land-based Atlantic City operator, which would then provide a gateway for the site back into the US market.
The bill is now one step away from becoming a law: Gov. Chris Christie will have 45 days at his disposal from the moment the bill lands on his desk to sign it into law. We remind our readers though that a couple of years ago, a rather similar initiative was vetoed by Christie, after it had worked its way through the New Jersey legislative machine.
Raymond Lesniak (who was by the way the initiator of the previous legal attempt as well) has high hopes for this bill. Although he admits he has no indication regarding the direction in which the Governor will lean this time, he thinks several key factors are different and they may indeed tilt the balance in favor of the new bill.
If Christie signs the bill into law, the first intra-state online poker sites may be up and running in about 6 months. Lesniak says that the bill would be a much-needed life boat for the state’s besieged brick and mortar casino industry.
