Although many believed that 2017 may be the year when New York legalizes online poker, it now seems that proponents of the idea may have to wait until next year at the earliest.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow was the lawmaker to push the online poker effort in the Assembly this year. Earlier in 2017, he introduced A5250, a bill that provided for the legalization of online poker within the state’s borders. Here it is important to note that the proposed legislation was identical to a Senate bill that called for the same. The latter piece of legislation was sponsored by Sen. John Bonacic, a long-time supporter of the idea for a regulated online poker market.
A5250 was approved in the Assembly’s Racing, Wagering, and Gaming Committee on June 15 and was referred for vote to the Codes Committee. The legislative piece also needs an approval from the Ways and Means Committee and the Rules Committee before being referred to the full Assembly floor. However, the state’s legislative session is scheduled to end on Wednesday, June 21.
New York Daily News reported that Assembly members will likely abandon the online poker push this year. Commenting on the current state of affairs, Assemblyman Pretlow has said that there has been opposition that would likely prevent the bill from moving any further during this year’s legislative session.
As mentioned above, A5250 is a companion piece to S3898, the Sen. Bonacic-sponsored Senate bill. The Senate’s full floor voted on S3898 last Tuesday and the piece was forwarded to the Assembly’s Racing, Wagering, and Gaming Committee.
If New York’s online poker effort succeeds after all, it will allow the legalization of online forms of Texas Hold’em and Omaha within the state’s borders. The New York State Gaming Commission will issue a total of 11 licenses for interested operators.
A somewhat surprising turn of events was the recent addition of a “bad actor” provision to the Senate Bill. Under said provision, operators that had previously been found to have run afoul of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 would not be allowed to operate in New York.
This would mean that PokerStars would not be able to service local players. The online poker operator was among those to have been banished from the United States back in 2011. It has since then been trying to grab any opportunity to return to the US regulated online gambling environment and has partially succeeded by launching poker operations in New Jersey last year.
Aside from New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware are the other two states where online gambling is legal.
