There's still a few tribes that remain steadfast in their beliefs concerning bad actors. This will need to be addressed before further progress can be reached.

Regarding last years bill, this one appears more detailed and features more complete language regarding regulation.

We'll have to see what happens in the coming months before Californians can actually get a feel for the likelihood of being able to click buttons and make money (from regulated providers that is ).

shawwwwing

Actually, the language of this bill as passed by the committee now covers that. It says that this bill won't go into effect as law (after being passed) until another bill is enacted that addresses bad actors. So this bill can be passed by Assembly now without resolving the bad actor issue.

Here is the relevant bill provision:

to me atleast this isnt all that great. the articles ive read keep saying the state can only support 6-10 online poker operators, who in the hell wants that many anyways even in a state the size of cali? i think that'll be terrible for the players and the majority of the sites wont hardly make anything anyways. i understand all the different groups trying to get their greedy hands in the this but wouldnt it be much better overall for not only the players but everyone involved if they only had a couple sites and then just give each group they were gonna give a license to and the horseracing industry a certain percentage of the profits? not gonna happen obv but just my 2 cents. also it was said before that a 12-18 month period if this goes through before the first hand is even dealt online in the state and anyone playing on a offshore site within that timeframe is subject to felony prosecution, the timeframe and criminalization is both a joke.

there are people with more knowledge than me ofc and actually have inside info of the situation but its obvious pokerstars has made huge efforts to get in and has thrown alotta money around and partnered up with some tribes and there are alotta other tribes who are opposed to them and want the bad actor clause which i think could prevent this from getting done but who knows maybe even those who supported stars now distance themselves from them due to the recent allegations brought against them, i dont want them in personally anyways since the way amaya has continued to s**t all over the players since taking over.

if this did pass any idea around what time of the year that would happen?

Does anyone even care if Pokerstars gets in? Seriously, why would you ever want that to happen? Until they get new owners that's the worst possible thing that could happen. Let them ban the scum bags ffs.

Quintessential CA dysfunction: Passing a bill that says Remember: this bill doesn't actually DO anything until ANOTHER bill goes through the equally laborious legislative process to fill in the stuff this one left blank".

On the one hand, it's a classic negotiation technique to put into writing and sign off on the issues where the parties agree, thus narrowing down the list of open issues. On the other hand, given that it's CA, I can't help feeling like this half-measure effectively turns one legislative quagmire into two separate ones. Getting this half-baked bill through Assembly will itself be an uphill climb...and now they're guaranteeing themselves a 2nd slog right behind this one. I'm cynical about government and regulators, and this just smacks of something that lets all parties feel good about themselves and point to as evidence of progress, when it doesn't actually get us any close to the finish line...and at worst puts us further away.

You bring up a few things. The most important thing players should want is a reliable software suite, which Pokerstars has nailed down.

Obviously, the rake/game changes that have gone into effect in the past couple of years have not been advantageous for a chunk of poker players. That said, those with knowledge have all voiced that the infrastructure of online poker is in a rough state, so it isn't surprising Amaya was trying to do what they thought would keep their cash flowing.

With Baazov currently being investigated for insider trading, there still remains a possibility of the company going private or a sale. Time will tell.

The bill is now in the Appropriations Committee. Would have to clear a vote there and then move to the floor for Assembly vote before heading over to Senate.

Here's a long read from Dave Palermo about where everyone stands at this point:

http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/205...er-next-steps/

I still think it's a net positive that the racing issue has been semi-solved (emphasis on semi) but like always, it's difficult to tell if we've just moved from 1 to 30 on a spectrum where 100 is getting the bill passed.

So basically the next big hurdle is coming to a compromise or agreement with those that are firm on upholding the "bad actors" clause I would guess? Either way I'm looking forward to a future where I can play online in California!


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I would prefer is Pokerstars didnt enter California at this point, not even close to the same company back in 06'. Hopefully that cancer they call Feinstein doesn't set us back another year.

I would love to see wsop.com there. Whoever is able to get in will instantly have a substantial player pool basically instantly. I'm sure everyone will jump right off Bovada and other networks.


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We can only hope that WSOP.com is the future of online poker. They have better brand recognition with the general public at this point and Stars is now not even worth playing.

Carbon Poker has the 2nd best software in the industry and no one plays there, I wonder why that is......

Worse software is > than getting ****ed in the ass by Stars. It doesn't matter what sites get in, someone will take the spot of Stars and WSOP is the best equipped to do so considering every poker player in the world both live and online knows who they are.

Is this the same bill that makes it a felony for players to play on Bovada once it passes?

I also don't want AmayaStars getting into California. I'll take my chances on garbage software that the others have.

With as long as it is taking to get paid out by Bovada these days, it would be a welcome change. What's the over/under for an online poker bill being passed and implemented in California? 5 years maybe?

Well, if the CA regulators are looking at NJ's numbers, it looks like AYA's entry has hardly expanded the market. Virtually all they've done is steal market share from Bovada and WSOP. It looks like the numbers are stabilizing now and they're below even what they'd allocated for their beta test. That should make it more palatable to everybody to cut Stars out from a purely business point of view using the bad actor provision .

Of course there's always the possibility that whoever is indispensable to getting the deal through is already in AYA's pocket.

Erm... I think a lot of people with this viewpoint are not fully comprehending that by the time this bill passes and is actually implemented, there is a reasonable chance it will no longer actually be AmayaStars.

I thought so, but the criminalization aspect is left out OPReport story...
Was that part of the bill removed? Or just omitted as unnecessary to report on?

The American political system is so outdated. It'll be 20 years before America rejoins the ROW player pool.

We can only hope that never happens.

they've been working on this in Cali since 2006? i'm not sure even sure when anymore but its definitely been wayyy too long. surely, the tribes realize how much money they've lost by now.

it blows my mind that they dont realize with every passing year the poker economy looks worse and worse and it may to too late by the time they come to some sort of compromise. doesnt seem like any poker players are advising them....just like amayastars

http://www.latimes.com/politics/esse...htmlstory.html

Juan Thyme