pokerai.org • View topic - California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

FAQ

View unanswered posts | View active topics

Board index » Online botting » Online botting » Legal & EULAs

California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Page 1 of 1

[ 12 posts ]

Print view

Previous topic | Next topic

Author

Message

rootw0rm

Post subject: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:21 pm

Junior member

Posts: 12
Favourite Bot: mine

http://www.compatiblepoker.com/poker-ru ... poker/3778

Quote:

California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Written by RogerCP | Monday, May 31st, 2010

The state of California has given its first green light to a legalized online poker industry by authorizing an intrastate poker system.

According to EGR, the amended version of SB 1485, that will essentially see online poker offered in the state, was introduced by Senator Rod Wright just before the weekend.

Interestingly, the bill has been given urgency status, highlighting the need for California to find different sources of revenue as a top priority. By being granted this status, the bill only has to receive the signature of the governor in order to come into effect. Any bill not granted this status needs to wait until the beginning of 2011 to come into effect.

And California certainly needs the cash. The latest numbers show that the state’s budget deficit has grown to $19 billion, and with higher costs and greater rates of unemployment, this will only rise.

Ironically, the bill will appear before California legislators on June 1st, the very same day that the federal level Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is set to kick in.

The amended bill introduced by Wright will have the Department of Justice award a total of three contracts – each for five years – to operators to run online poker sites. The condition will be that these sites are run by Californian based companies and that only state residents can play at them.

Online poker experts fear that the fact that the poker sites will limit uses to state residents only could mean a small player pool and true poker fans will still seek the services off offshore sites. However, the state still believes that by introducing a safe and regulated option for Californians, money will land in state coffers and poker fans will be able to make a calculated choice about their gaming options.

p.s. card rooms are already legal here in cali if u can get gaming license. i play at Ocean's Eleven and am frustrated how i can legally go play in a card room, but can't go online and play because of heavy handed feds

Top

psilon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:58 pm

Senior member

Posts: 217
Favourite Bot: The Crushinator

Hopefully the bill fails, this sudden trend toward isolating tiny little pieces of the player pool into little walled gardens has got to stop, I think it's worse than attempts to ban poker outright.

Top

rootw0rm

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 5:18 am

Junior member

Posts: 12
Favourite Bot: mine

that's a pretty selfish reason to hope it fails. do u ever have trouble finding a table to play at? do u really think cali legalizing it will negatively affect u? if anything cali may set a trend for more widespread legalization

Top

psilon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:50 am

Senior member

Posts: 217
Favourite Bot: The Crushinator

There is nothing selfish about it. State-sanctioned monopolies are *always* a disaster, it would be the gaming equivalent of Pan-Am or Amtrak. People in California (or wherever) would be seriously restricted in the types of games available to them. There is no reason to think such a state-sanctioned monopoly business would even bother to try to catch cheaters or have a fair RNG, and customer service would resemble the DMV. And tiny little communities often DO have trouble getting a game, if I want to go and play 2-7 lowball at 7 AM now, that works out fine, but if limited to a rinky dink site with 1% of the player pool, probably not. (Note, I do not live in California, so theoretically the bill does not affect me)

Please realize that this does not actually make anything at all better for the people in California, since the law wouldn't overturn or give them an exemption from UIGEA in any way, not that UIGEA has any effect in the first place.

Maybe better for botting since they wouldn't ban bots though (maybe against TOS but they would never catch any)

Top

BlueSilicon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:21 pm

Senior member

Posts: 447
Favourite Bot: Mine, of course!

In the US, Nevada was the only state to have any casino gambling, other than horses, for many decades. After New Jersey broke the drought and added casino gambling, other states slowly followed suit to a limited degree. Today many states offer some sort of casino gambling outside of the Indian casinos. My state, which is neither NJ or NV has some non-Indian casino gambling which includes poker, black jack, slots, and a few other card games.

So I like California breaking the ice and getting this rolling. Other states will follow, then the feds will have to allow this in the US. Heck, thanks to California, people in several states can smoke marjiuana legally now . . . if they say they have a medical need which seems to include everyone who ever gets headaches. Don't get me wrong, I'm apposed to marijuana. But poker I like!

Top

PokerProspector

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:06 am

Senior member

Posts: 107
Favourite Bot: Still Deciding

I'm not too worried about there being poor RNG / rigged sites as a result of this legislation being passed. I like to imagine there's enough competent tech-savvy companies out west that someone with "decent" software will get one of the contracts (imagine what will happen if Zynga decides to try to get an online casino license...fish city). Even if there's not - the key factor here is that there will be three contracts awarded rather than just one. Three separate companies competing for the online casino crowd should be enough to guarantee that there doesn't end up being an Amtrak/DMV/Comcast/PG&E-style monopoly. If the cheating is blatant enough on any of those state sponsored sites, the other two should be able to promote their more "secure" site enough to put them out of business.

Worst case, they're all really awful software with a tiny hacking player base and some enterprising botters/black hats will clean the places out / ruin the sites and there will be new competent companies to take their place or the bill will be repealed.

The UIGEA is a toothless bill anyways - there's just no way to safeguard against every possible transaction into casinos. If a degen wants to get their money into a casino - they'll find a way. Just wait until someone finds a way to facilitate in-casino exchanges of cash for "real money chips" - think something along the lines of how people sell MMO gold for cash on websites.

Top

Panik

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:37 am

Senior member

Posts: 270
Favourite Bot: OpenHoldem

Well, this will give cali residents one more option if they want to play online, so I guess it's a good thing.

Furthermore, I wonder how they're going to check for Californian citizenship? If the intent of the bill is to make the state money, then I suspect they won't try *too* hard to block out-of-state residents... :drink

Top

PokerProspector

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:20 am

Senior member

Posts: 107
Favourite Bot: Still Deciding

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hop-on ... _news_stmp

It looks like the first possible licensee is...Hop-On: the primary distributor of electronic cigarettes. Apparently they're pushing some sort of web casino technology - they preview it at http://www.webcasinos.com

Given the state of the website being used to demo the technology I wouldn't expect great things from the client. If these guys get one of the bids...I may have to eat my words.

Top

psilon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:05 am

Senior member

Posts: 217
Favourite Bot: The Crushinator

I'm not too worried about it being rigged - more worried about pervasive ineptitude. Which can be worse, sometimes. A brand new company starting out in internet gambling, facing the hardcore players, botters, colluders, hackers and so on that have evolved in the poker ecosystem over the past decade or so, I don't think they would stand a chance. Especially since the primary thing that will help them get the license is not technical merit or customer focus, but political schmooze power. A cool Silicon Valley startup would do a great job on the technology but would have no prayer of getting the license.

Because of the bill's requirement that the companies be based in California, few established gaming companies will have a shot. If a real technology company like Google or Apple or somebody - at least they have experience coping with hackers - got one of these licenses I'm sure they would do a fine job, but I don't expect they will get them. Apple, especially would never apply for such a license.

Does anyone know the bill's prospects of actual passage? All that has really happened so far is that it's been introduced. Is it really a done deal or will it face actual opposition?

Top

BlueSilicon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:16 pm

Senior member

Posts: 447
Favourite Bot: Mine, of course!

psilon wrote:

Because of the bill's requirement that the companies be based in California, few established gaming companies will have a shot.

It takes less than one day to setup a company based in California. Go to Sacramento, file article of incorporation, sign a lease agreement for office space, put in your bid for contract. The purpose of the California based company is to avoid federal laws. If the company operates outside of California, then federal laws come into play.

To ensure California residency, the signup process will probobly require CA driver licesne or CA ID card number, CA address, and of course for taxes the social security number. All of this makes it easy to verify residency. This is why residency is required and not "be within the state of California while playing". Nevada accepts phone in sports bets from anyone within the state (you do have to preregister but residency is not required). They track this by caller ID, which is obviously something you can overcome with a GO phone with a NV area code number; however, breaking this law lands you in jail for a long time and it's easy for them to get their hands on you as a US citizen.

Top

██████

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:01 pm

Regular member

Posts: 61
Favourite Bot: FlockBot!

if the main sites operate a skin from the location it may work - maintains the player pool size plus gives the local government or whatever all the means to oppress their citizens... Could be a logistic nightmare for the main site, although might still work as a franchise.

Top

psilon

Post subject: Re: California Moves Ahead to Legalize Online Poker

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:05 pm

Senior member

Posts: 217
Favourite Bot: The Crushinator

It's not that it's hard to incorporate a company in California, but it's harder when you're an offshore entity whose assets would be seized if they were in the US.

Anyway, it won't keep the feds out - they have declared that all internet activity counts as "interstate commerce" even if the sender and receiver of the transmission are both in the same state, since the Internet infrastructure extends outside the state. I don't know if they have a court precedent or if that's just the position they've taken, but either way they'll act as though it's true unless a court stops them. If the requirement to play is residency and not physical presence, then it would already be interstate commerce even without iffy federal interpretations.

Top

Display posts from previous: Sort by

Page 1 of 1

[ 12 posts ]

Board index » Online botting » Online botting » Legal & EULAs

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to: