California has long been home to online poker legalization attempts, but nothing there has ever amounted to much. It has been tough to get a consensus among the tribes and other gaming interests in the state, but this year looks the most promising to date, according to one lobbyist working on the issue.
David Quintana, a lobbyist for several of the tribes pushing a new piece of legislation, said that the odds are about 50-50 of something passing. There are a couple of other proposals sitting in the legislature that have hope as well.
Quintana said that in the past years he pegged the odds at zero for a bill being successful, but this year is looking promising.
There are many factors that could come into play, as the new draft bill by the tribes is obviously not finished. More details should come out in the coming weeks or months.
In 2010, California tribal gaming brought in revenues of $6.78 billion, out of the more than $26.73 billion which comprises the entire United States. Commercial casinos brought in about $10 billion more per year than Indian casinos.
In California, part of the issue is making it so tribes and non-tribal gaming firms could co-exist, with brick-and-mortar tribal gaming not being negatively affected by games coming to cyberspace.
Next to California is Nevada, which has legalized online gambling for its commercial casinos. One company there has already started real-money online poker.
For more news from California, check out its state page.
