California Contemplates Legalising Online Poker

It lacks a snappy title but the latest draft bill to come out of California could be one of the most important to surface out of the United States in regard to online poker. California is a mega-state, it would be the fifth largest country in the world by GDP alone and when it moves, people follow.

California has previously looked into whether or not the state could legalise online poker within its borders under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Under the guidance of then assembly man Lloyd Levine this would have left the door open for confusion. This time the state is going one step further and trying to legalise online poker out right.

The first part of the draft bill is an investigation into the current sea of online gaming and discusses the billions of dollars the United States currently spends online, huge swaths of which leaves the country and enters the coffers of unregulated off-shore accounts.

It then goes on to add the contradiction of live poker against online, stating that live poker is regulated within the state "yet (California) provides no licensing requirements, regulatory structure or law enforcement tools to protect millions of Californians who play exactly the same games daily for money online."

In order to protect and regulate the perhaps millions of players who already play online "It is in the best interest of the state and its citizens to authorize, implement and create a licensing and regulatory structure and system to allow licensed gambling establishments to operate government-regulated Internet poker wagering Web sites”.

What is at the heart of this proposed bill is that Californians wishing to play poker online would be better looked after, better protected and experience the same regulations and procedures that occur in a legal live casinos. At the same time the state, and so the people, would profit from the new regulations.

Some of the factors that will have to be taken into consideration and perhaps the biggest obstacle to the proposals are making sure the licensed establishments are within California and ensuring that the players are all located in California. The debate continues.