[jetset]

CALIFORNIA POKER BILL HAS A GOOD CHANCE TO PASS

Because it proposes only a study, legislators could get behind this bill, says law expert

The respected online gambling law expert Professor I. Nelson Rose from the Whittier Law School cautioned this week that the industry should not become too optimistic at the news that the Californian legislature is considering a bill to launch a study of intra-state legalisation of Internet poker (see previous InfoPowa report).

The professor said that whilst Representative Levine’s bill does have a good chance of being passed, it is currently only an initiative to study the implications of legalising online poker in the state.

“Levine thinks this bill might pass, because it only calls for a study," said the professor. "He is not that optimistic at the moment about legalisation, because it appears not only the federal, but the state, Departments of Justice are saying it would violate federal law, even if it is entirely intra-state.

"I think this is wrong both on the substantive law and on the purpose of federal law when it comes to gambling, which is only to help the states promote their public policies.”

The professor added that the biggest obstacle may be getting the political players to agree on how legalisation could work.

“There does not yet seem to be the motivation, mainly because the revenue projections have been small," he said, revealing that he had been working with numbers supplied by a major operator which showed that with advertising and the right to take credit cards, California-only online poker could be much bigger.