Although the online poker community in the state of New York has previously provided optimistic forecast for the fate of the online poker bill, this no longer seems like a sure bet. Despite the fact that the State Senate passed the proposed piece of online gambling legislation last week, the New York Assembly Democrats do not seem to have any intentions of giving the green light to the bill within the current legislative session.
The issue was discussed by Assembly Democrats behind closed doors last week, but no actions are likely to be taken up before the end of the legislative session that is set to close on Wednesday, June 21st. Based on the feedback of the Assembly Democrats, the bill would not be given the green light in 2017.
The Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, who is one of the main proponents of online poker, confessed that the attempt to make online poker legal across the state faced some opposition. Pretlow also explained that it was very likely that the bill’s supporters would probably resume their efforts to finally see online gambling legislation next year. In addition, it did not became clear what exactly the Assembly Democrats were opposed to as far as the bill’s provisions are concerned.
Considering all this, it is very likely that the state of New York keeps the online poker bill shelved for another year, not to mention the fact that there is practically no time left on the current legislative calendar for a review of the piece of legislation to be completed.
As already reported by Casino Guardian, the New York was part of the states which have been dealing with tough online gambling opposition for some years now. For the last three years, the states of New York, Pennsylvania and California have been making attempts to officially introduce online gambling legislation, but their efforts have ended up in the same way. This year, there has been some progress with the states’ online gambling bills, but some states did not manage to take advantage of the gained momentum and are still trying to make online poker legal.
There have been two attempts for legalizing online gambling in the state of New York in 2017. The first one of them, A 5250 was introduced by Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, and then Bill S 3898 of Senator John Bonacic followed.
Last week, Bonacic’s legislation attempt was given the green light in the New York Senate, passing the bill to the State’s Assembly, where its fate was to be decided. As of last week, the fate of the proposed piece of legislation was not very clear, considering that two previous attempt to make online poker legal were shelved in the Assembly over the past two years. Earlier in 2017, the proponents of the bill projected brighter future for the S 3898 Bill, but at this stage it does not seem that the piece of legislation would get more thorough Assembly discussions.
- Author
Daniel Williams
