Despite earlier hopes that regulations would finally be hammered out this year, it no longer appears that California’s state legislators are going to take up the issue of online poker before 2014.
The California General Assembly is set to dismiss their current session on September 6, meaning that any potential looking to pass would have to be through committee and on the floor of the General Assembly for a vote.
According to published reports, there are presently three bills in committee or proposed on the subject of regulation of online poker.
Effectively out of consideration for 2013, these bills will almost certainly need to be reintroduced in 2014 for consideration.
Political insiders confess than bickering along party lines has held up passage of any meaningful bill governing online poker.
In particular, the influential Indian gaming lobby, the California poker rooms and horse racing tracks have proven incapable of uniting to reach an agreement that would satisfy all parties involved.
“California would be the crown jewel in any online poker operation if it were active,” says Earl Burton of Poker News Daily. “With its 38 million residents (the largest in the United States), the potential market would dwarf that of states that have already passed some sort of online gaming legislation (Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware).”
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