I just called my assemblyman and state senator to tell them to support online poker regulation in the state - and to get involved in the Correa discussions. Both of the ladies that answered the phone were very nice and took down everything I said and told me they would contact me with the results.

All California residents should do the same!

http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

any updates? I tried google but I kept reading the same stuff that didnt really help

Next step will be hearings on the bills (SB 51 and SB 678) in the Senate G.O. Committee. There were similar hearings held back in 2010.

No hearings scheduled (and won't be until end of April). SB 51 has an urgency clause, so there is real "rush" to have hearings.
I'm hearing the Tribes are starting to get on board, but there is still some resistance.

I try to post about this on my twitter - https://twitter.com/CAGamingLawyer, although, there hasn't been much to post about the CA bills in a while.

- WOL

Tribal government site article on latest bill introduced 2013

http://tribalgovernmentgaming.com/is...fornia-dreamin

Sovereignty and investigation with costs seems to be largest sticking point.

This is the pro argument ..


Clearly still have a long way to go, can it be bridged?

Can we think a little more on a 5 year scale? .. 25 years really .. the world moves a bit faster than that. I remember when I opposed touch tone phones 25 years ago ..

Sad truth here .. we are drawing very thin, and the tribes have all the blockers.

Any updates? Are the tribes still being stubborn?

when does this come for a vote?

California’s online poker bills are still being negotiated behind closed doors. Some of the big players are on board, but a couple others are still being very stubborn. The first step will be to have a hearing in the Senate Government Organization Committee (http://sgov.senate.ca.gov/agenda).

The bill is not on the agenda for April, but can be added to the calendar with a four day notice to the public. There is no “date for vote” – last year’s bill didn’t even get a hearing.

Overall, there is a lot of optimism that this time things will be diffrent, but no real progress so far.

- WOL

California needs to act fast, they need some new revenue quickly especially when they look at the books next year and realize that there has been a min exodus to summerlin Nevada from a bunch of high tax paying Californians.

Is California close to finally passing an online poker bill? Tribal gaming authority Victor Rocha thinks so.

Previously, the editor (Victor Rocha) has typically been negative on the chances of any bill passing.

Wow, finally, some good news and dates speculated!

Clearly good news but I don't see how Tribes and Tracks get together, they have been the most at odds up to this point. Seems like Tribes have the most power, with small tribes able to torpedo the bills to this point.

Tribes seem to not want any new parties to expand into the business, so they want the horse tracks out, but the more the better for the players. Just a matter of wait and see but encouraging.

I was hoping SB 51 would get some traction, but why has SB 51 not moved since January? According to this link here, it looks like it hasn't left the G.O. committee in its house of origin, which is a major concern:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/po...&author=wright

What is the committee waiting for? Someone in the poker media should ask this question of the politicians, or maybe John Pappas can. The lobbyists should know if Wright has asked them to hold off on considering this bill.

Secondly, as a fiscal bill, did it miss that May 3 deadline on this calendar link?
http://senate.ca.gov/sites/senate.ca...INALSenate.pdf

I bring it up now because the deadline to get the bill out of the Senate is May 31. Time is running out!

- - - -
Edit:

So the committee could consider it as early as Tuesday, but that's not guaranteed:
http://sgov.senate.ca.gov/committeehome

Still, it's going to be hard to not be angry if they put it on Tuesday's agenda, and the bill lacks support. If that's what happens, it's hard to understand why Committee Chair Wright delayed action on this for months and months. (A controversial hearing that doesn't look so good for a bill can lead to back-room negotiations, which can transform a controversial bill into a feasible one.)

SB51 probably won't get any traction since it isn't supported by many of the tribes. The new bill that the tribes are working on should be introduced soon (hopefully). Supposedly it will satisfy all the major vested interests (tribes, card rooms, race tracks) so has a good chance.

My guess is that the horse race tracks get dropped.

-WOL

Thanks for the excellent answer. Will have to keep an eye out for that one.

Only thing that sucks is the whole stoppage of unlicensed sites immediately with a charge of a misdemeanor with breaking the offense. Of course the tribal bill has been unseen, but I bet they used the past bills as some type of starting point outline. And I don't see them taking that portion out.

Would suck also if they just sat on the bill for awhile once it passes. But it will more than likely be worth it in the end once a bill passes regardless.

If all the powers that be card rooms, tribes and horse track got their greedy acts together CA would lead the nation in play online. The faster we get playing the faster tax revenues and fish will jump in the poker pond. The casinos/rooms need to think of ways to leverage live and online play. The basis of such play has been put forth by Nevada. Cross promotion of brick and mortar with online action is the key. People need to stop worrying about what piece of the pie they will own and learn how to get the pie baked and in the starving poker players market. It will sort itself out. You could play all week online and then Saturday get enough points or tickets to go play live driving customers to gaming venues. Tournaments could start online and then be finished at venues. The gaming venues have to think outside the box and extend the player base and nurture the game and players. This is not hard just requires some thinking.

Sorry, im not too good with all this lawyer jargon. Can somebody please explain to me how poker legalization is looking in california in layman's terms?

I miss pokerstars so much, im getting so sick of playing on these other crappy softwares. Having played on pokerstars for so long you really get spoiled, i can't take it anymore. This is bs, the us is a joke. Sigh :/

Yea the existing world will be illegal, it is in some gray area anyway. Player penalties seem a foregone conclusion also. To avoid the great state of CA taking 6 years to figure out the regulations a go live date of "X" months must be in the bill. That can be done I'm sure. It's not like there isn't some template to work with out there.

At least CA can stand alone and support big player pools, then compacts can be added at a later point. Tribes are not going to allow "there" players to play out of state sites.

Player penalties serve to allow the licensed sites to be inferior to those currently being offered. Players, by and large, would prefer to play on a licensed and regulated site, where they know the game is legit and their money is safe. So, unless the licensed and regulated sites are complete crap, or the cost to play is too high to be viable, the unlicensed sites will wither away and die on their own.

Player penalties should be vehemently opposed on all fronts, even if it means objecting to and causing delay of getting legislation enacted. Let's make sure they do it right.

CA is going to left sucking hind tit if the Tribes, Poker rooms and (god help us) legislators don't enact some sort of law. The longer we wait the more other states will control the situation. Then it will be blame game time no you didn't support our bill so we are not going to support yours...bla..bla..whine..point a finger. We have the largest population and could be the leader and set the rules and make the largest amount of revenue. But we are letting people wring their hands and freeze up the decision making process. The old marketing adage is first to market rules lets at least try to be the one with the biggest swinging dick and population at the revenue feed trough. It use to be CA lead and the nation followed. Now we have become of state of followers hoping to get a crumb from the online poker table.

Only touches on iPoker, but interesting example of Tribal gaming and California politics for us newbs:

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/22/543...all-about.html

And HolyLol at Pechanga alone having contributed $70 million to various California campaigns since 2000.

Looks like the "third bill" and the Correa bill are one in the same. Big event going on at the ICO2013. Victor roacha already hinted at something about the correa bill being announced. Event goes on june 3-4th with much of the discussion going on the 4th. The 4th might be a big day for news keep an eye out for it.

Question to the Igaming politics Buffs.... If pechenga and san manuel are working together, will it be enough for the bill to get over the hump this year? thanks

Lots of tribal politics involved at this point, but San Manuel's language for the Correa bill (SB 678) is being modified with the language circulated by Pechanga. There may be a unified bill for the tribes -- but several concerns remain. Assembly speaker Perez may also be on board.

And for all of you PS fans out there... PokerStars is not coming into the CA market - the tribes will make sure of that. They may be able to license their software and somehow get around the "bad actor" provision, but it will be tough.