Online Poker Debate Heats Up in New Jersey and California

Two of most populous states, California and New Jersey, cash-strapped, continue to discuss the benefits of explicitly legalizing online poker in an intrastate system, with new and amended bills proposed earlier this month. However, major hurdles remain in both California and New Jersey before state-approved online poker sites get up and running.

If a federal law on the latter is overturned State legislators in New Jersey Will attemp to put a referendum on November’s ballots that would put the state in position to offer online poker and sports betting, State Senator Ray Lesniak (D-Union) has been leading the charge, which has been endorsed by iMEGA, a gaming association with online poker operators among its members.

On June 3, Lesniak’s legislation was approved 3-1 in a committee vote, leading some proponents to believe that online poker was on the way in the Garden State. But all hopes for a easy passage quickly faded when the Casino Association of New Jersey, representing Atlantic City’s 11 casinos, was head strong against the legislation last week, with concerns that an open system would hurt the tourism industry.

CANJ president Joe Corbo wrote in a public letter, “As the industry seeks to work with government to revitalize the economic engine that the Atlantic City casinos bring to the state of New Jersey, the last thing that the state needs at this time is to undermine the destination resort model by expanding gambling to other parts of the state,” .Corbo also tried to raise doubts about the legitimacy of iMEGA in its efforts to support the proposal. Corbo stated, “New Jersey, which has set the gold standard for its gambling laws, should not now have its gambling laws driven by a group like iMEGA that is made up of offshore Internet gambling sites that are not permitted to accept wagers in the United States and are thumbing their nose at the United States Department of Justice,”

State legislators are still mulling the possibility of approving the legislation, despite of the casinos opposition.

State Senator Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic) stated that the CANJ has “a corporate responsibility to do what’s best for their company. That’s a different responsibility to what we have, to do what’s best for the state and its interests…I don’t begrudge them that. Despite the recently announced casino opposition. Whelan still supports the measures.

New Jersey’s state government will to continue discussing the issue in depth over the next several weeks.

Even though the proposed system has yet to gain much support amongst the current online poker community, California has been inching closer to an intrastate online poker system. That’s probably because the legislation on the table would restrict online poker to just three California operators, while making it illegal for California residents to play on an unapproved site.

“The bill would provide that it would be unlawful for any player to play any gambling game provided over the Internet that is not authorized by the state pursuant to this bill. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program,” a summary of the bill read.

States Senator Rod Wright introduced the legislation, and is likely to earn the support of a gaming coalition that consists of Commerce Casino, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, Hollywood Park Casino, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and Bicycle Casino

“California is one step closer…to allowing the establishment of legal intrasite online poker web sites that will offer consumer protections and provide desperately needed revenue for the state.” stated the coalition who reviewed the legislation.

The California Tribal Business Alliance, a group of casinos and card rooms, has voiced concern that such a bill would hurt their land-based properties. California faces nearly a $19 billion budget deficit, while New Jersey struggles with its own $11 billion budget deficit. The financial situations for the two states are amongst the most dire in the country.