Online Poker Law to Benefit Californians

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine says that protection is the main issue with the new online poker law that could take effect in California.  The proposed law would be the first step towards having online poker rooms in California and so far it's made it through the first committee.

Sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is hopeful that it will lead to a new law that would give residents of California a place to play online that will be regulated by a governmental party in the United States.  The proposed law is the first of it's kind in the nation on a state level.

The law calls for the California Gambling Commission and the Attorney General's Office to study the issue concerning "regulatory oversight and licensing, economical benefits to state and local governments, and the means by which those games and forms of gambling may be conducted and operated.”

Protecting California residents, Levine says, is the impetus driving his proposal.

“There’s obviously a huge poker boom in the United States right now,” Levine said. “A law like mine is needed to provide protection for California online poker players in light of federal legislation that forces poker players to offshore gaming.”

His proposal has made it through the senate governmental organization committee by a vote of 6 to 1 and calls for the AG's office to decide if regulating intrastate online poker would violate the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act.  Levine thinks that the conclusion will be that it won't because the UIGEA doesn't clearly address the issue of intrastate gambling.

“To do what they did just flies in the face of reality. You cannot prohibit people from playing online. It just doesn’t work that way,” he said.