Online Poker Back On The Cards For California
Introduction
It looks as though online poker is back on the cards for California after what has really been a three year hiatus. Despite the fact that California borders Nevada and all the allure of Las Vegas itself being only a few hours drive away, back in 2006, along with the rest of the USA, Californians were deprived of the right to play online poker, when our erstwhile politicians decided that we couldn’t be trusted with the offer of 24/7 poker; thinking we’d all go bust or mad in a frenzy of poker playing.
Who went bust – poker players or the politicians and bankers?
It’s quite an irony really that in the three years since the effective ban of online poker and gambling – it’s actually all the supposed financial wizards on Wall Street that have gone bust due to their relentless addiction to making more and more money, profit invariably made off the working man – not to mention that the politicians in California brought the state to its knees, making it virtually bankrupt! So, you’ve got to ask yourself the question – who can’t be trusted to behave properly when it comes to money; bankers and politicians or poker players? I’m sure you get my point here.
AB2026
No doubt California would like some taxes from winnings like these?
A strange heading for a blog about poker you might well think, but AB2026 will hopefully prove a very luck bill for Californian poker player. That is the bill that Lloyd Levine and others are sponsoring in the Assembly to try and overturn the federal law banning internet poker. Great news for us poker players, but I just can’t help wondering if there’s not some underlying motive behind AB2026 that’s not strictly to do with poker? With the state facing a budget shortfall in excess of $20 billion this year, we’ve all heard about the slashes, never mind cuts, being made to public services in California. Parks closing, schools being underfunded etc. Now then it was reckoned back in 2006 Americans spent $6 billion on online gaming, including poker. I can’t help but wonder what slice of that sort of money could go into California’s state coffers by way of taxes, under state regulated online poker and gaming?