Which card rooms? Commerce, Bicycle, and Hawaiian Gardens are all on Pokerstars' side, naturally. The others probably don't have much in the way of a lobbying effort at all.

It does look like May 9th is the big day for AB 2291. If it isn't passed out of committee, there it dies. Then it will have to get a floor vote, and it requires a 2/3 majority to pass, and be voted on before May 30th.

Wednesday's hearing was in the Assembly, so AB 2291 is the relevant measure.

Curtinsea, what do you think the chances of the bill being passed out of committee on may 9th is?

Personally, I think the chances are pretty slim. This being an election year, I think the lobbyists will be working overtime, and letting the clock run out is advantageous to the legislators. I'm sure money will be pouring in from both sides, and they will be able to milk it.

It's probably in Pokerstars' best interest to see it put off until 2015 as well.

wow 5 hours...would be nice if someone could post the parts to fast forward to if there are any interesting bits.

that sucks to hear. My life has been a train wreck since blackfriday. I probably should have moved to canada, but oh well, hopefully this stuff gets passed ASAP

Don't forget Morongo is a tribe and is joined with the card clubs. I'm sure the clubs have some lobbying efforts and Morongo for sure is in the game. The Vice Chair (Rep.)'s district boarders the Indian lands. He is the strongest opponent of bad actor language from the hearing.

This is tribe on tribe, anyone who partners with Stars has a big advantage over the other possible sites.

Californians Overwhelmingly Support A Well-Regulated Online Poker System

Woot Woot. u cali's brahs should be getting excited because ur gonna have online poker up and running within 0-2years.That **** will be a gold mine at first imo. happy for u all. NY needs to follow ur footsteps and im guessing its 2-5 years out

you have no idea, online poker will be a godsend.

Word. I played for a living for a couple years. Not a huge winner but able to get by. I started cutting back when some of the smaller sites started closing down prior to Black Friday. I have the itch on a regular basis and while I enjoy playing at casinos I find it hard to devote that much time any more. I miss being able to log on for a couple hours from my couch.

+1 I used to play daily. Now I'm lucky if I get to play once or twice a week. I can't complain though since there are a few card rooms and multiple casinos all within 30 minutes or so of where I live. Many people live in areas where live play isn't a realistic option. For them, online poker was the only option.

i'm guessing you live in the bay area?

Nope......San Diego.

+1

i always wanted to live in CA

It's almost the 9th does that mean were SOL

If they pass a bill now, then they lose out on all the lobbying dollars that are available heading into an election.

It's easy math

I thought we had until the end of May for a bill to pass..? I understand the timeline and lobbying $ for the election, I also watched the entire 5:45 on 4/23. So you really think all of that was smoke and mirrors and they're gonna drag passing a bill out till next year? I got the impression they commission was about sick of the tribes and want to pre empt the feds from passing something before ca can so the state has control.

Did PS mess things up that badly for us, or did they already know this could potentially happen and see it as a time to lobby their way in? IMO if team PS/card rooms/Morongo really wanted to they could literally afford to buy their way in..?

May 9th is a committee deadline, the bill has to move beyond the committee stage by Friday to stay alive. May 30th is the deadline a bill has to pass out of the house of origin, the assembly bill needs 2/3's to pass.

It wasn't smoke and mirrors at all, but it also wasn't a hearing on the specific bill. If it had been a hearing on the actual bill, rather than a general information type hearing, I would be more optimistic. There hasn't been an actually hearing on the assembly bill, and that committee deadline is Friday.

The Commission has no role in the legislative process, other than perhaps offering an opinion on the viability and cost of regulation. Further, passing these state level bills IN NO WAY pre-empts the feds from passing a prohibition. And if the feds do pass a prohibition, it will make all the state bills moot.

Yes, they messed things up, yes they already knew it would happen and give them time to lobby their way in. IMO, they can spend all the money they want, and they still aren't getting in, not first round anyway. The Pokerstars/Morongo/Commerce/Bike Goliath spells doom for every other tribe/cardroom hoping to get into online poker, and they will all fight tooth and nail, and together, to assure that doesn't happen.

*all of this is speculation on my part, of course

Thanks for the detailed response curtinsea I appreciate it.. Seems a bit pessimistic of an opinion but also logical and quite possible imo. I guess we will know by the end of the day friday if anything will happen this year and will be up and running 1/1/15 like has been discussed. I just think it's too big to fail, im still hanging on to a bit of hope i suppose. Maybe the most +ev move at this point is start looking to move to big states considering legislation that also have no indians to deal with lol geez..

curtinsea=the man

Another online poker conference is scheduled for May 22, seems like that's the next big day.

Conference on Online Gaming Aims to Articulate Future of California Online Poker

It's not the next big day. It's a conference held by a news organization and a university, not the legislature.

yeah thanks curt.... im going to try and remain hopeful. If it doesn't happen at least we still have bovada