US Online Gambling Expansion In 2015 So Far

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Thursday, July 30th, 2015 | Written by Adam Brown

From the beginning of this year, multiple states were seen as great candidates to pursue internet gambling expansion, especially Pennsylvania and California. In fact, these two states were widely considered the frontrunners in the race to become the country’s next legalized iGaming states, although other states such as Washington, Massachusetts and New York were also considered long-shots to adopt regulation in 2015. In the first six months of this year, however, the momentum has changed significantly, but unfortunately not exactly in the way expected. While Pennsylvania has made some good progress on the issue, the others have not managed to do quite so much. So let’s examine the situation further, and try to fully understand exactly where these states are right now when it comes to online gambling expansion.

California

2014 was a problematic year for California as multiple gaming factions emerged, each with a specific interest that thwarted any efforts to reach a consensus on the iPoker issue. Nevertheless, many thought that this year was to going to be year narrow self-interest would be put aside and online poker regulation would be passed in The Golden State, especially following Amaya Gaming’s acquisition of PokerStars, thus helping to free the operator of its previous “bad actor” label. Unfortunately, even now nothing close to a consensus has been achieved between the disparate gaming groups, and progress has proved elusive. This struggle has been typified by the debate on whether to allow racetracks to participate in the industry, although the situation hasn’t been helped by other issues, either, such as the conviction of Sen. Roderick D. Wright for fraud.

After so much trouble and hassle, however, this year still offers promise. The split of San Manuel and other tribes from the anti-racetrack Pechanga coalition is a positive sign, not to mention that PokerStars and Caesars have now joined forces to promote US iGaming. At the same time, online poker bill AB 431 has steadily moved forward since being introduced earlier this year, but the downside here is that the bill isn’t that specific, and even more troubling is the fact a new issue has been raised by the poker industry questioning whether the state has the ability to effectively regulate afuture Californian online poker industry.

Pennsylvania

Since Pennsylvania introduced its first online poker expansion bill in 2013, progress has been steady but it wasn’t until this year that the state started to take the issue seriously, mainly thanks to Pennsylvania Representative John Payne taking over the chairmanship of the Gaming Oversight Committee. Numerous hearings on gaming expansion have since taken place thanks to his HB 649, but combined with Senator Kim Ward’s SB 900, the online gaming movement is gaining ground in Pennsylvania, and the potential for success is definitely promising and might be here sooner rather than later.

New York

MGN pushed hard with their ‘Let NY Play’ campaign and even though there were two bills in 2014, namely that of Senator John Bonacic (S 5302) and one by Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow (A09509), so far they have failed to have the desired effect. According to numerous sources, though, the senators who created these bills aren’t really focused on pursuing them further this year, so we might have to wait until 2017 to see any progress.

Massachusetts

This year, Massachusetts has had to deal with a major problem as it lost the state treasurer Steve Grossman, one of the state’s major iGaming supporters. The worst part here is that his replacement, Deborah B. Goldberg, is more focused on gambling’s brick and mortar counterparts rather than the online world. There are, however, still supporters in this state, with Senator Michael Rush one of the most important as he wants to legalize online lottery and poker in the region. Unfortunately, bill Bill S 191 has failed to garner much support to date, and could very well end up on the scrap heap.

Mississippi

Mississippi has similar problems, too, since their own iGaming bill isn’t likely to be adopted anytime soon. Despite the state’s reliance on land based gambling revenues, experts consider iGaming expansion in Mississippi a long-shot at best.

Washington

There have been numerous advocates in Washington for online gambling regulation, including Curtis Woodward and his ‘Washington iPoker Initiative’ which was instrumental in introduction of House Bill 1114 which was created early this year. As Woodward wrote in his blog:

“For too long, the state has taken a harsh stand against, and then turned a blind eye to, internet poker. This state allows us to play poker in Tribal casinos and licensed card rooms, but considers us felons if we play from the privacy of our homes on our computers. This is not only silly, it is ineffective, as players continue to play on sites operated from outside the state’s reach, and without any real consumer protections.”

Nevertheless, the bill died in the committee, so there are strong hopes it will gather stronger support when and if it is introduced sometime next year.