Git R' Done California. this is a big upcoming 3 months for you, and your success would result in good outcomes for many other states as well. You should be out there lobbying for change; The time has finally arrived.

Legalize the plant and online poker.

Curious what people think about this. If weed is legalized in CA does that have an impact on online poker?

I've heard (not sure where it may have even been this thread) that if weed is legalized that is may actually hurt the chances that online poker is legalized. The reasoning was that the state will be getting more revenue and this may not be looking for more right away.

So this is pretty much the final form of any amendments for this year, right?

I feel a lot of effort has really gone into making this work, and it seems as if it's still falling short...I can't fathom what they'd do next year that would fix any of these problems.

The issue is really the tribal partners. You think they want to get pushed into a five-year ban too? Even if inclined to drop Stars, it's hard to see them going forward this year without a new partner in place.

Actually, I haven't. I got into this fight to promote poker legislation, not to take sides. I think the bad actor amendment is harmful to our effort, which is the source of my issue with it. Again, my issue is with the amendment, not the bill itself.

I personally think something along the 18 months timeout of Reid-Kyl would generate a discussion, and a discussion is what really needs to happen.

I imagine calling it something different than a "bad actor" provision would be better, too, but I don't know what Stars or their coalition partners actually think. Again...incomplete information.

Not at all OK with that. Open the door and new sites will come.

its not difficult at all to get a med card in cali, there are billboards on the freeway advertising free delivery. there are some small hoops to go through but its basically legal already. the bigger questions are why hasnt it been federally regulated yet, especially since our economy went in the pooper a long time ago? and more on topic why cant online poker become federally regulated and legal after all this time, while DFS seem to have no problem becoming such atleast so far in a state by state process a helluva lot faster than poker?

The amendment doesn't help the bill at all. It kills it. Unfortunately, I imagine Pechanga's hiring of disgraced former Rep. Gary Condit as a lobbyist, who also happens to be Asm. Gray's father-in-law, may have helped that along.

We want poker in CA. Sadly, if this keep failing, I really see stakeholders giving up, or at least spending a lot less lobbying. I also can imagine lawmakers giving up too. We simply want the parties to come together to make this happen.

The new amendments create two unsuitable categories. Category A is people who are “covered persons.” Category B is people who own, lease, operate or in any manner utilize “covered assets.”

People in Category A have a 5 year penalty box, but the amendments are silent as to any ability to sit for licensure for Category B after any period of time. So long as a person owns, leases or otherwise utilizes covered assets, it seems that these folks would remain unsuitable.

Ah, yes. I see that now. That is a ridiculous condition for unsuitability. Not only does the amendment forbid any company from using "covered assets" in California, but even if a company just owns the assets and uses them elsewhere, the company would be unsuitable for California licensure. I take back what I said. The bill as amended is not worthy, and is certainly not an attempt at a fair compromise.

By the way, for anyone who cares to read it, here is the link to the bill and amendments:
http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bi...ray_%3Cgray%3E

DFS has a larger mob behind it that is more dedicated than us (thru volume at the least), as well as likely having more personal interest of various lawmakers involved. IIRC ~100k people contacted NY legislators about DFS, including phone calls and in person visits.

In fact I actually got an email today from Fanduel about taking action for CA legislation. It had a link to a simple and effective looking email layout for players to email legislators with their name/address & a preloaded message with reasoning to vote yes that can be edited. It also seems as if clicking send once sends the email to multiple relevant officials.

I can see how Fanduel would have such a large & direct mailing list to have more success with this method than us, but I wish we could do something with poker that's more personal and has a little more reasoning than 140 characters can offer like this does, while still being simple/quick. In addition to tweeting that is, possibly thru 2p2 or local card room mailing lists.

If only DK/Fanduel got into the poker game as a partner for some of these tribes. Maybe even buying FTP software while we're dreaming.

I have no idea if this is even possible, but if they could/would partner and provide poker I could see this being even better than having Pokerstars in CA for various reasons, especially legislation regardless.

Last post in this thread was 8/24/16. Did we all just give up?

Something to do with tribes say online poker is possible only if pokerstars ban itself for the first couple of years and pokerstars stop campaigning.

there is currently no bill in the CA legislature to discuss

but now there is .....

lather, rinse, repeat

http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/240...lifornia-2017/

Yeah man got tired of holding my breath. Quit my job & moving to vegas to take my shot.

Yep. California Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer has introduced the Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act (AB 1677), which would license and regulate online poker in the Golden State. Unfortunately, disunity among stakeholders that has doomed past legislation has not been resolved.

I am going to assume since we are nearing the end of CA's legislative session we have rolled another craps to allow for online poker. I hope I am wrong.

Yes, but this time no one even sought to give the dice a roll. The divisions between tribes are still there and, until they come to agreement, it doesn't seem likely that anything will move.

I wonder what would happen if someone tried to do this as a ballot initiative....

they would find that a ballot initiative is an expensive process and nobody is willing to put up the funds

Some quick googling, and it looks like it'd take 2-3 million to get the signatures, and another 20 million or so for advertising. It seems that someone like Poker Stars would be willing to pay this, if it meant the legislation would have favorable language for them.

There must be something I'm missing. Maybe they've done polls, and something like this wouldn't actually pass the vote.

the entire dollar amount spent by Pokerstars over the years lobbying to get into the US market is probably less than $20 million