Internet gambling, an illustration. (Photo: Pedro Sala)The Legislature made history of sorts Monday when it recorded its first-ever committee vote on a bill to legalize internet poker in California, but the measure is light on details and remains a focus of intense negotiations. Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, introduced the bill, AB 431, earlier this year.
An online gambler concentrates on his game in Nevada, which recently authorized internet gaming and may license fantasy sports companies.(Photo: Associated Press)Rival interests are rolling the dice to legalize California’s internet gaming market, the most lucrative in the nation. At stake in the Capitol negotiations is a prize worth hundreds of millions of dollars — and maybe more. It’s not the first time. Efforts to legalize internet poker in California – where the revenue may top $1 billion annually over a decade — have failed repeatedly in the past.
An illustration of an online poker player. (Photo: photosani)Three months after attempts to reach an agreement to establish internet poker in California fell apart, a major California gaming tribe says it has joined a coalition to push for new legislation to bring online gambling to the state.
OPINION: California is the largest market in the United States and is among the largest in the world. It is estimated that more than a million Californians are gaming online through overseas sites, which we know to be dangerous for gamers. These black market sites for Internet gaming offer no consumer protections.
A computer keyboard flanked by the elements of traditional poker. (Photo: Pedro Sala)An attempt to establish internet poker in California foundered this week in Sacramento, with rival interests – including tribes, horse racing, card rooms and others – unable to reach agreement on legislation during the final weeks of the legislative session.
A computer keyboard flanked by the elements of traditional poker. (Photo: Pedro Sala)As negotiations intensify over establishing internet poker in California, a study commissioned by several casino-owning tribes says online gaming could result in $845 million in revenue and more than 2,600 new jobs by 2020. The figures stem in part from an analysis of legislation that was considered – and rejected — by lawmakers last year. Similar legislation is the focus of negotiations this year, but so far an agreement has proven elusive.
A critical sticking point in private negotiations over authorizing internet poker in California became public Thursday when a tribal chairman announced his intention to bring in an international online gaming firm as a subcontractor to conduct operations in California – but only if the state approves the new legislation.
Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, at a 2013 conference on online gaming. (Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)Sen. Rod Wright, the chair of the powerful Governmental Organization Committee and the Legislature’s leading expert on online gaming, was convicted of eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud in a case spanning nearly seven years. He was convicted of lying about his true address — which under California law must be in the district he represents — and lying on registration and candidacy documents. (Above: Rod Wright at a Sacramento conference, 2013. Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)
Foes of a $250 million tribal casino-hotel north of Madera have qualified a referendum for the November 2014 ballot – a move that delays construction on the 305-acre site until voters decide the issue next year.
A political committee has been formed to block a referendum challenging a proposed tribal casino north of Madera planned by the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians.