iPoker Hearing in the works for California in Late August

While the month of July saw an iPoker hearing crumble in the state of California, officials are gearing up to try again in August. Just a few weeks ago, both Assemblyman Mike Gatto and Reggie Jones-Sawyer removed their online poker bills from a hearing before the Assembly Governmental Organizational Committee. Jones-Sawyer’s bill is now scheduled to be heard by the same committee sometime in late August.

An exact date for the California hearing has not been set but we do know that the legislature break ends on August 17^th. One could assume the hearing will take place sometime from the 17^th to the 31^st of the month. The state of California has only until September 11^th to make any moves to pass online poker legislation this year. It is beginning to look like the state will not be able to move forward with passing legislation in 2015.

Jones-Sawyer’s bill, AB 167, was removed from the July 8^th hearing as it was believed the proposal would be overlooked due to issues with invested parties not being able to come to a consensus on the matter. The two main issues that will not go away are the bad actors and racetracks. Officials are going to have to come to some type of compromise in regards to both for the card rooms, Indian tribes and race tracks to be happy. AB 167 allows both to be included, which is not what particular tribes want to see taking place.

Namely the Pechanga band of Luiseno Indians are in disagreement with the tracks and bad actors. The tribe has offered a compromise to the racing industry by suggesting revenue sharing and affiliate participation. However, race tracks do not like these ideas and want to have a level playing field for all involved.

For now, we wait and see what happens in the August hearing. The state may be able to come together and come up with some way to offer online poker gaming that everyone can agree on. Or problems will continue and the state will continue to miss out on the blossoming online poker industry of the United States.

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