California Regulated Online Poker is 'Dead'

There's three pieces of Online Poker legislation on the table in the state of California at present, however it's expected that not one of these will get the required support. Most politicians questioned on the subject tend to agree that any form of poker regulation in the state is 'dead' for the time being. The problems being faced at present are exactly the same ones that have seen other bills fail and those are quite simply that a mix cannot be found that everyone will agree on. There's strong debate between California card rooms, horse racing tracks and the extremely powerful Indian gaming lobby and as the current session is due to end on September 6th there's little chance of anything getting through to the General Assembly before then.

The three bills proposed on the issue are those of State Senator Lou Correa, Senator Roderick Wright's and that of the Californian Indian tribes, which is still in a draft stage and non have made it past the committee phase of the whole process, meaning that they will have to start all over again in 2014. A rather large issue regarding any bill on online poker in California is that of the amount of revenue up for grabs. As we all know, Cali is huge and the potential market is extremely large, so big that interstate compacts or international deals would not have to be considered to ensure liquidity and player numbers should they wish to go it alone. Californian Indians feel that online poker would eat away at their revenue streams, and as a few bills have tried to cut them out of any deal, they thought it best to get their own in. Although things started off brightly in 2013 the continued debates around what is best for who meant things came to a jarring halt. California is regarded as the key state regarding regulation as with 38 million residents any state wishing to enter into deals with Cali would have player pool problems solved immediately.

Players in California and indeed the rest of the US get their fill of their favorite game in the regulated offshore poker rooms with Americas Cardroom being an extremely popular choice.