Some Exciting news, IMO, regarding online poker Legalization in California...

Highlights:

'New AB 167 would soften bad-actor language to allow for PokerStars.'

'Predictably, the coalition partnered with PokerStars — including the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and California's three largest card clubs (the Commerce Club, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino and the Bicycle Casino) – now support the legislation.'

'Playing at unlicensed online poker sites could be a felony'

'In-person registration is optional' (rather than mandatory in as introduced in Bill AB 9)


Still a long way to go as there has been more than 1 bill introduced regarding legalization of online poker in California in the last two months, but deff a step in the right direction IMO. In a state with 40 million people (larger than Canada) this could be the biggest step to finally getting online poker back in the USA.


Links:

Bill AB 167 (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/...introduced.pdf)

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2015/0...ange-20413.htm

http://www.californiaonlinepoker.com....56fn6gZr.dpuf

I guess a PokerStars monopoly is better than having to deal with the crappy software, liquidity and marketing of the other sites. Please don't screw this up, Amaya.

If we have a non-US account, will they let us convert it to a California account, or will we need to create a new one?

so this won't let californian's play with the world pool right

No chance. It will be a California-only pool. Maybe in the future they will combine pools with Nevada/NJ etc, but that's not on the table now.

That's kind of a bummer. I don't understand the difference, from their perspective.

"Playing at unlicensed poker sites could be a felony" is pretty insane

State wants to tax every dollar that comes from the California residents. If people in other countries win our money, the state cant tax them. This only gets passed if it makes money for the state obv.

Yea deff scary. Not sure how they could find out tho? Especially if u have already had your account before this passes and it is registered in another state?

geez changing plans to move to cali for next year then

Agreed. After California, hopefully New York will be the next state to get "enlightenment" as far as the benefits outstripping the cons for fully regulating and allowing freedom of legal US online poker to flourish is concerned.

Degenerates rejoice.

LOL NY.

US players still won't be able to play with ROW players though, which is obviously bad news.

isnt this a step in that direction tho

We are no where near being able to play with ROW players. They wont even allow for states to connect player pools. One step at a time... Annoying as it is...

Bad news for ROW players who want to take advantage of American fish. Great news for American sharks who want to take advantage of USA recs who haven't played online in years. If done properly, would not be surprising if one could make much more $$$ on pokerstars.ca than on .com.

pokerstars.canada?

Definitely cool for Cali... but with all the earthquakes, radiation level increase from Fukashima, a dying ocean and obsurd traffic, how long can it really last? Aren't people wanting to get away from the toxic paradise California has turned/is turning into?

No offense to Californians, I know central and northern Cali has some beautiful country, but radiation and polution travel far by air and by sea. I truly am worried about you guys/gals. Im worried about all of our eventual future really..

Online poker just for California would be huge.

California has a population of 38 million. This is higher than Canada.

This is 3 times higher than the COMBINED population of the 3 states that have regulated online poker.

Also, the fact that California has ~1/8th of the USA population is a huge deal when it comes to regulating online poker to other states (and/or nationwide).

As previously discussed, a slightly higher rake is tolerable if we can get a giant pool of inferior players to join - California, NJ and Nevada 3 most likely at this point, to join and we have the blossoming of a new online boom hopefully, plus with the Ryan Reynolds poker movie announced, poker needs as much good publicity as it can get. As for players, the US haven't been online and will be way behind the curve and should provide a new oxygen canister for the shark divers in the form of new deposits, that is if they get to play with Euros which seem unlikely.

Just curious, is it federal law that's preventing states from having player pools integrated with the rest of the world?

You have some HW to do sir

Here's a fun easy way to learn about it

http://watch.betraisefoldmovie.com

Haha pretty funny post.

Earthquakes are overrated. We get 500-600 per week, yet a significantly damaging one happens maybe once every decade or so.

Besides, we produce more pollution on our own than we'll ever get drifting from Fukushima. I'm surprised the SoCal air doesn't result in some crazy chemical reaction with all the silicone implants down there.

But seriously, a few thoughts...

1. As I mentioned in a different thread, the clause that makes playing unlicensed sites a felony may not be that bad, should this work out. If PokerStars and other sizable sites can succeed, most people won't have any interest in playing the offshore sites. Put another way, during the pre-Black Friday era, few Americans on Stars and Tilt were saying, "Oh WTF, I can't play on Titan?!"

Of course, in the short run, it will suck for some, particularly for those who have grown accustomed to Bovada, ACR, et al. I can only imagine that the traffic will be a little grim in year one.

2. If this means Jim Ryan is no longer the leading contender to gain a foothold in the Golden State, everyone here should be doing their happy dance.

Estimates on when they'll put it to a vote? Before or after September?

Fun fact: If California was a country it would be the 8th largest economy in the world.

Definitely a big deal if online poker is legalized there. Too bad legislators always go full ****** and segregate the games from ROW. Then again, with such a potentially huge player pool it might be a success anyway.