Home / Poker News December 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – New Jersey’s Poker Bill
The Poker Grapevine – New Jersey’s Poker Bill
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Fri, 2012-12-14 07:15
Monday December 17 will be a decisive day for the fate of legal
online poker within the State of New Jersey. The amended poker bill we told you about a couple of weeks ago, is scheduled to go before the full New Jersey Assembly.
If the bill, named A-2578, makes it through the Assembly, it will have made its first step towards becoming law.
New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak expects the bill to undergo a Senate vote provided it clears the Assembly hurdle first.
Lesniak definitely has a history of optimism in regards to the said bill: he had initially predicted that the bill would pass in March this year, then again, in May he said it would clear the legislative machine again. Obviously, none of those predictions came true, but this time around, Lesniak may indeed have a true game-changer in his corner: the full backing of the New Jersey casino industry.
According to Lesniak, since the bill had failed to garner enough votes to go before the Senate, a lot has changed, and the need for it is now greater than ever. He also said that there was no one lobbying against the bill this time.
There are other subtle clues out there that this time the bill may indeed be received differently:
PokerStars, the largest online poker operator, is apparently interested in purchasing a land-based gambling operation: the Atlantic Club. The move would allow PokerStars to begin re-building its US player-base and to effectively re-enter the US market, but only if the amended bill becomes law in its current form. It has been said that the amendments introduced into the bill were made with the express goal of facilitating PokerStars’ return, something the State of New Jersey would see as a positive development.
