California Online Poker Bill Shelved Again

At the beginning of this year, there existed high hopes California would join Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey in offering regulated online poker, an aspiration added further credence when bills AB-2291 and SB-1366 were introduced to both the Assembly and the Senate in February.
A few months later, and that dream seems to have ended for another year with AB-2291 stuck in the committee process, and now State Sen. Lou Correa  deciding to shelve his SB 1366 due to a lack of time left in the current legislative session. Commenting on the issue, Sen. Lou Correa (photo), said:
“Internet poker is an important public policy. We need to make sure it’s done right.”
One of the factors contributing to a lack of progress on regulation is resistance from various Californian gambling interests, such as Indian Tribes, cardrooms, and race tracks, as they jostle to carve out a slice of the potential iGaming pie at the expense of their competitors. As Santa Ysabel’s gaming attorney Martin Owens, explained last month:
“So everyone is out there, with enough money to block each other in the stage legislature.. There are some really deep-seated rivalries. That’s what’s kept Internet gaming from moving forward at the state level. There are too many people whose main interest is making sure someone else doesn’t get a chance.”
Needless to say, the latest news comes as a major disappointment for poker enthusiasts, as well as the US online poker industry as a whole which was relying on Californian poker to give the nascent industry a much-needed boost. After all, California is the most populated and wealthiest state in the whole of the country, and between 2009 and 2010 the Golden State’s unregulated internet poker market boasted 178,300 Californian players, and also accounted for around 16% of all revenues stateside.
With SB 1366 shelved, industry analysts are now hoping the intervening period will allow enough time for California’s gambling interests to overcome their difference and agree an acceptable deal on the whole protracted issue.