\nA second draft bill to legalize Internet poker in California that would include the pari-mutuel racing industry along with American Indian tribes and card rooms was introduced Thursday by Democratic Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer.<\/p>\n
\tThe Jones-Sawyer bill (AB167) differs from prior legislative efforts in that it extends licensing eligibility to the politically powerful racing industry. Prior draft bills limited licenses to tribal governments and card rooms.<\/p>\n
\tAB 167 would require a \u201cqualified card room, horseracing association or federally recognized California Indian tribe\u201d to pay a $10 million license fee and an 8 \u00bd percent tax rate.<\/p>\n
\tMomentum to include pari-mutuel racing in online poker legislation has been building since last year, when Jones-Sawyer and outgoing Senate Government Organization Committee (GOC) Chairman Lou Correa, both bill sponsors, said they welcomed debate over licensing tracks.<\/p>\n
\tGov. Jerry Brown said he would not sign an Internet bill into law that is opposed by the racing industry.<\/p>\n
\tAnd Joe Morris, president of Thoroughbred Owners of California, said the industry would not accept a subsidy in lieu of the ability to operate a poker website.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe want a seat at the table, on a level playing field,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIf there are licenses out for sites, we want a site also.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSome prominent Indian tribes contend licensing tracks would violate public policy against expanded gambling and endanger their constitutional guarantee to operate casino-style gambling.<\/p>\n
\tBut other tribes are not opposed to licensing tracks, at the forefront of a pari-mutuel industry that includes track owners, breeders, backstretch workers and labor unions.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d said Robyn Black, president of Eclipse Government Affairs and a lobbyist for the racing industry.<\/p>\n
\tThe Jones-Sawyer bill also softens \u201cbad actor\u201d language in prior legislation intended to preclude licensing firms that took U.S. online wagers after passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.<\/p>\n
\tAmaya Gaming\/PokerStars contends prohibitive \u201cbad actor\u201d language in earlier bills, including AB 9 introduced last month by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, was meant to keep the international online giant from competing in the potentially lucrative California market.<\/p>\n
\tLicense suitability provisions in what is titled \u201cThe Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act\u201d precludes licensing firms that \u201ccontemptuously defied\u201d federal or state law.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt encourages me,\u201d Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said of the Jones-Sawyer bill draft.<\/p>\n
\tThe Morongo and San Manual Indian bands are partners with Amaya\/PokerStars and three Los Angeles area card rooms (Bicycle, Commerce and Hawaiian Gardens casinos) in a coalition working to legalize online poker.<\/p>\n
\tAlthough coalition lawyers had not yet scrutinized the Jones-Sawyer draft, Martin said he was pleased that \u201cbad actor\u201d language was largely eliminated.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe fact (AB 167) has softened the bad actor (language) goes a long way\u201d in getting coalition approval, Martin said, and may increase the likelihood of a bill being enacted in the 2015 session.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt at least kicks the ball down the lane a little bit farther,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tMartin doesn\u2019t see the race tracks as a competitive threat to tribal and card room websites. But he does believe the racing industry\u2019s political clout may be necessary in getting legislative approval of an online poker bill.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe race tracks carry a lot of weight in Sacramento,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
\tMark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luise\u00f1o Indians, which last year headed a coalition of 13 tribes on the Internet issue, said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d in AB 167.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTribes have been steadfast in the principle that online poker be consistent with California’s longstanding public policy of limited gaming, and that means keeping it to just tribes and card rooms,\u201d Macarro said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCalifornia voters have always had the final say on gaming expansion and they have already rejected expansion of gaming for horse racing.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tThe chairman also said it was wrong to soften \u201cbad actor\u201d language in previous bills intended to \u201chelp prevent corporations and entities that previously violated federal law from profiting from tainted software, brands, and databases derived from illegal activity.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tGatto, a champion of indigenous issues credited with passage of sacred sites legislation, said he discussed poker legislation with Jones-Sawyer last week, beginning what is expected to be a year of deliberations and new and amended bill drafts.<\/p>\n
\tIsadore Hall, who last month won election to the Senate and has been appointed chair of that body\u2019s GOC, also is expected to introduce online poker legislation.<\/p>\n
\tGatto said he hasn\u2019t made a decision on whether racing should be included in an Internet bill.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s not a simple, straight-forward issue,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I can say is I worked at the race tracks. I know it is a very, very important, historic industry in California.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut I talk to my friends with the tribes who remind me they have in the California Constitution an exclusive right to operate many different kinds of gaming. We have to make sure that we respect the Constitution with what we do legislatively.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt really is a tightrope.<\/p>\n
\tGatto also said legislation should limit licensing eligibility and not leave suitability determinations solely to regulators who are not answerable to the voters.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs legislators we have to be careful how much we leave to regulators,\u201d Gatto said.<\/p>\n
\tThe assemblyman expressed confidence a bill will be enacted this year.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe work well together,\u201d Gatto said of Jones-Sawyer. \u201cI would expect both bills to be a conversation-starter and it will be a long year.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cReggie is a very smart guy. Isadore has worked with this for a very long time. I think we have the intelligence and the drive to get it done this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A second draft bill to legalize Internet poker in California that would include the pari-mutuel racing industry along with American Indian tribes and card rooms was introduced Thursday by Democratic Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer. The Jones-Sawyer bill (AB167) differs from prior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}