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US states scramble on poker legislation

Following the recent collapse of New Jersey’s online gambling legislation, other American states are scrambling to fill the gap and get on the online poker sites bandwagon.

First Iowa were considering introducing a bill to legalise the establishment of online casinos that could bring new tax dollars into the state and raise workforce rates, and now the state of Nevada has begun work on a law that would see more on US poker sites being established.

The bill is being introduced by Democrat Assembly Majority Whip William Horne who has acknowledged the economic opportunity for the state that online gambling provides. Previous research by the gaming industry for use in New Jersey lobbying efforts had calculated that for that state, 57,000 jobs would be created and bring an additional $450 million into the state’s treasury department through taxes.

While much of Horne’s election publicity materials as a Democrat talked about the need to diversify the state’s economic opportunity beyond casinos and construction, in the state’s legislative chambers he is seeming more pragmatic about where new state revenues can come from. With Iowa looking to draft legislation and the New Jersey Governor preparing for a referendum to let the state’s citizens decide in November, Nevada may be looking to lock in some of the big online poker sites ahead of any other state creating an economic opportunity for themselves.

US Poker site Poker Stars has sniffed the wind and employed a retiring Nevada Gaming Control Board member to help the site lobby for recognition of online gambling as a legitimate business that can contribute to the state’s finances. This is in despite of some of Horne’s rhetoric that seemed to downplay the industry in the last electioneering.

It is a weird advocacy and policy worldview as bricks and mortar gaming casinos sometimes work to counteract online gaming in their own state for fear of driving their physical punters away from the casinos and back into their internet-connected homes. For online poker players, it will all boil down to more options to play both physically and online with a greater range of competition but the established players are antagonistic to a widening of competition.

This legislative bout has just started and with Iowa on the way, it will be a big year of US online poker legislation.