Home / Poker News December 2012 / New Jersey Poker Bill Passed
New Jersey Poker Bill Passed
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Tue, 2012-12-18 11:46
New Jersey lawmakers have taken a major step on Monday towards putting an
online poker bill back onto Gov. Chris Christie’s desk, and possibly having it signed into law, thus legalizing and regulating the game within the boundaries of the Garden State.
The State Assembly voted in favor of the bill 48-24-4, and according to Sen. Raymond Lesniak, the initiative is likely to have an even easier time in the Senate. Once the Senate approves it, the next stop is the Governor, who needs to sign it into law. A couple of years ago, a similar bill made it to the Governor’s desk, but he vetoed the initiative. This time around, several key issues have been amended in the bill and – provided it gets signed into law – in its present form, it will allow
PokerStars to purchase a land-based operation, which they could then use as a springboard to re-launch the brand on the US online poker market.
The above said bill, which was passed in January 2011, was approved by a bigger margin (63-11). Although Lesniak hasn’t shed his optimism, the closer vote this time around meant less Republican support, and that may in fact turn out to be an indication of what the Republican Governor may do with it once the bill is on his desk. Lesniak said that the overwhelming Republican support the bill got last time around certainly didn’t say anything about the intentions of the Governor either.
The move represents an important development in the battle for legal and regulated online poker in the US. Efforts have just run ashore on the federal level, and the battle has now entered another phase: state-by-state regulation. The proposed federal bill would’ve banned online gambling, but now since it faltered, New Jersey can go ahead and legalize the whole package.
