After a couple of months of inactivity, there appears to be a little movement on the iPoker front in California. At least, we think there might be.
According to OnlinePokerReport.com the Assembly Governmental Organization (GO) Committee will hold an informational hearing on AB 2863 next week.
However, the bill has yet to show up on the meeting agenda.
Meanwhile, it appears the PokerStars Coalition is still going strong following the release of a letter in support of AB 2863.
Will There or Won’t There Be a Hearing?
According to the OPR report the hearing on Adam Gray’s iPoker bill is scheduled for April 20 as part of an already existing hearing. However, at this time the bill does not appear as part of the agenda.
If AB 2863 becomes part of the meeting, it will be the first time this year a bill has received a hearing.
Last year AB 431 was actually able to emerge from committee despite only being a shell bill. It was able to do so after the Pechanga Coalition changed its view to neutral on the bill.
The bill later moved through the Appropriations committee but stopped short of a floor vote after lawmakers were unable to complete a full draft on the bill.
PokerStars Coalition Sends in Letter of Support
One positive development out of the announcement of this hearing was the release of a letter by the PokerStars Coalition in support of AB 2863.
The committee wrote Assemblyman Gray to tell him it still supports “your bill to protect consumers, create jobs, and strengthen our state’s economy by authorizing and regulating intrastate, Internet Poker in California.”
The letter was signed by every member of the Coalition except for the United Auburn Indian Community. While there is speculation that this could be in connection to the insider trading charges against Amaya, there’s nothing to indicate that they have abandoned ship at this time.
Just One Small Hitch...
Despite its letter supporting AB 2863 there was one area of concern that the PokerStars Coalition pointed to. The concern is over a provision in the bill that would restrict PokerStars from using old customer databases.
They believe that preventing them from reaching out to former California players will stunt the growth of PokerStars in the state. (Yes, they said iPoker but we know their true meaning.)
The provision was added in an attempt to level the playing field for other companies besides PokerStars that don’t have the advantage of millions of former customer contacts.
Ultimately, this will prove to be a minor issue and likely will have no impact on the passage or progression of the bill.
Don’t Expect a Vote on This Bill Next Week
While we try and stay optimistic about online poker in California, we feel that this bill will not be voted on next week by the GO committee.
The reason is the pending charges against David Baazov. We believe that the GO Committee members will want to hold off and see what happens there before moving forward with any legislation.
Our reasoning is that if Baazov is proven guilty, we could see a resurrection of a bad actor clause in the bill.
Granted, if the bill does come to a vote and pass, it still has to go through the Appropriations Committee before reaching a potential Assembly vote.
In either event, we're still a long ways off from gaining any true momentum on this bill.