Late in 2015, it became clear that PokerStars and Full Tilt, two of the world’s biggest poker rooms, will go live in New Jersey, after they were banished in disgrace from the United States back in April 2011. Among other things, their return resulted in a wavelike renewal of legislative debates over the potential legalization of online poker in other states as well. Over the past several months, New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania legislators have been discussing the topic and the online version of the popular game may eventually return to more jurisdictions within the United States’ borders by the end of the year.
As mentioned above, New York is one of the states where the potential legalization of online poker is once again a hot topic in the Legislature. Yet another bill on the matter has been introduced but it is still too hard to say with a degree of certainty whether the effort will prove to be successful and New York-based players will be able to play their favorite game online while in their home state.
A few days ago, Assembly Committee on Racing and Wagering Head J. Gary Pretlow introduced A9049, a bill calling for the legalization and regulation of online poker. And earlier this month, the Senate presented its own version of the bill, or rather a legislation that was proposed during the 2015 legislative session but did not gain much support.
Over the past two years, the New York State Legislature saw other similar measures introduced, with Assemblyman Pretlow being among the sponsors of such proposals. In fact, it could be said that A9049 is very similar to a bill that the lawmaker submitted in 2014, but has been slightly modified.
Generally speaking, the legislation makes online poker in New York legal and sets a regulatory framework at the same time. Assemblyman Pretlow’s bill defines the game as one of skill and not of luck and authorizes the provision of basic poker variants by gambling operators. However, it will be up to the New York State Gaming Commission to decide whether other versions of the popular game will be allowed.
The proposed legislation also calls for no more than 10 licensees to be given the opportunity to run online poker sites in the state. And each of the approved operators will have to pay a license fee of $10 million. Each license will be valid for 10 years and each licensee will have to contribute 15% of its gross gaming revenue to the state.
Assemblyman Pretlow’s bill further calls for the establishment of an agreement for liquidity sharing with other states with legalized online poker, similar to the compact between Delaware and Nevada. Last but not least, the legislation authorizes the New York State Gaming Commission to set regulations regarding consumer protection and other related matters.
As already pointed out, A9049 resembles to a great extent previously introduced efforts. This one, however, differs in the lack of a “bad actor” provision. Such a provision would prevent gambling operators that were accepting US-based players even after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act came into effect. With Full Tilt and PokerStars returning to New Jersey, Assemblyman Pretlow omitted the “bad actor” provision from the latest version of his bill.
Over the past several years, online poker measures did not gain much support in the New York State Legislature. However, given the fact that the game is to return to neighboring New Jersey and many believe that Pennsylvania will become the fourth state to have online gambling legalized, New York legislators are likely to give A9049 a more serious thought this year.
And although it is too early to say whether the bill will eventually pass into law, the mere fact that it is to be discussed in the state Legislature should be considered extremely good news for the online poker community and especially for that part of its representatives who are based in New York.
