Online Gambling Regulation News from California and Delaware

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This week there was news from two US states on the progress of online gambling regulation. The news from California was negative, whereas the news from Delaware was positive.

In a move that surprised many industry watchers the Californian online poker legalization bill was without explanation removed from the agenda of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee before it could be debated. Now more details on why this was done are filtering through. The Senate Bill 1463 was sponsored by Senator Rod Wright, who is also the chairman of the committee. Wright felt that the bill did not have enough votes to get passed and thought it prudent to withdraw rather than be defeated. This way the bill survives and can be reintroduced for discussion later on.

Wright told the LA Times that different groups want different things in the bill that conflict with each other. Some Indian tribes that operate land casinos are steadfast against legalizing online poker for fear of losing their business. This is also the case with some card clubs offering poker. Wright said he had spent over two years trying to accommodate as much of the diversity as possible, but apparently his efforts have been in vain. Wright will continue with his efforts in trying to reach a compromise on legalizing online poker in California, but he feels that the chances of succeeding this year are less than 50%. The co-sponsor, Senator Darrel Steinberg, was even more disheartened. Some people see online gambling as an opportunity whereas others perceive it as a threat. Steinberg said, "If there's no deal, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."

Delaware's bill HB333, legalizing online gambling and expanding venues for sports wagering, was approved by the state House of Assembly and will now be sent to the Senate for a vote. The Governor Jack Markell is known to support the bill. In the House the bill was passed with a strong majority of 29 to 8. However, this could happen only after amendments were introduced for allocating a share of the revenue from the additional sports lottery sites to harness and thoroughbred racing purses at the state's three racetrack casinos. Similarly lottery ticket retailers had to be placated by mandating that punters on online lottery games buy a prepaid card from an existing state lottery retailer.

Representative John Viola was the prime mover of the bill through the House. He said that the bill represented the next logical step in the evolution of Delaware's gambling industry. The bill will allow keno beyond Delaware's three existing casinos to at least 100 sites and will authorize betting on NFL games in more than twenty locations.

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