In the recent online poker meets Washington debate, we’ve often heard the terms intrastate and interstate being lobbed around. To clarify, intrastate poker would mean online poker players in California, for example, can play only against other players also in California.
Interstate, on the other hand, would mean that online poker players from California, for example, could play against players in New York and other states.
Several recent developments have taken place in California politics, in relation to legalizing poker. In the last few months, the California Online Poker Association, which includes members such as Morongo and San Manuel Casinos, has run ads on local television and on the internet urging voters to push through legal online poker within the state of California.
This ad campaign, which features firefighters, teachers and doctors, speaking directly to the camera, brings to light the $4 billion budget shortfall and cites that legalizing online poker would create an immediate $250 million in cash as well as creating thousands of jobs in the state of California.
The positive of these ads is that while Sacramento knows the issue of online poker well, especially given the large amount of money involved and the current state financial crisis, these ads push the issue of online poker where it needs to be, into the public consciousness.
This public advertising campaign served the purpose of pushing forth Senate Bill SB 40, the bill by Senator Lou Correa, to make online poker legal in California. This bill is designed to tax online poker, potentially bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bad news is that last week Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg shot down Bill 40 for the time being, pushing it off the the 2011 slate and moving any further discussion into the 2012 Senate. The one positive is that Steinberg’s opposition to supporting Bill SB 40 in the last few weeks of this political cycle came under the basis of acknowledging that online poker needs to be legal, but that rushing such as important issue through the Senate is an ill timed maneuver. In Steinberg’s own words, “Moving something this big in the last minute, it’s wrong.”