The hearing could be at 1:30 p.m. local time in Sacramento, and it'll happen within the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization. The web poker bill is classed as an “urgency” measure.
Audio of the hearing can be available here.
The chair of the committee, Assemblyman Adam Gray, is the sponsor of the legislation. An earlier version of his bill passed out of the committee last year, which was the primary (and only) time ever that a California online poker bill advanced within the Golden State legislature. That was in April of last year. The bill was deemed dead by the autumn without ever clearing the whole Assembly.
This year’s legislation was introduced on Feb. 19.
The two main hurdles for California online poker was the tribal gaming industry pushing back against the racetracks participating in online poker and a few tribes opposing PokerStars being a player within the space. The latter point is the so-called “bad actor” provision.
PokerStars’ former owners were indicted by the government in 2011, and the corporate ended up settling without admitting to any wrongdoing whatsoever.
Gray’s new bill requires as much as $60 million to visit the racing industry in exchange for the tracks not being focused on a market potentially worth nearly $400 million. PokerStars, which was licensed in New Jersey last year, have been lobbying in Sacramento, but its efforts may well be complicated by the previous CEO of its parent company being charged with insider trading in Canada.
California is the nation’s number one. tribal casino gambling market with roughly $7.3 billion in gaming revenue in 2014. That’s about 25 percent of the nationwide tribal casino gambling market.
Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]
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