We’re not even half way through February and it appears that California iPoker legislation is already on the ropes.
A key legislative deadline has come and gone, effectively killing the four iPoker bills under consideration in California.
Unless some last minute wrangling is done by lawmakers it may already be “try again next year” for California online poker sites.
Bills Miss Legislative Deadline
For those unfamiliar with the California legislature, it runs on two-year sessions.
Four iPoker bills were filed during the first year of the 2015-2016 session and the deadline for those bills passing their house of origin was January 31, 2016.
Unfortunately, the only bill to come close was AB 431 and it stalled once it reached the Assembly floor as it was only a shell bill.
Officially, this means that all four online poker bills are dead in the state legislature.
This may seem like a WTF moment for those hopeful of iPoker regulation this year but there are still a couple of ways that a bill could be resurrected.
Two Options to Restart the Process
There are really only two options left for lawmakers wanting to pass iPoker legislation this year.
First, they can simply reintroduce the bill. However, there’s a limited amount of time to do so. Any bill that lawmakers want to reintroduce must be done so by February 19, 2016. That’s just over a week from now.
The other option would be a bit of legislative wrangling known as gut and amend. Using this process a legislator would take a bill that he’s introduced previously, erase it and insert a new bill in its place.
However, if this is done, the bill must start all over again and go through both committees before going to a floor vote.
DFS May Have Killed the iPoker Star
Despite demands from pro iPoker lobbyists calling for lawmakers to reconsider online poker, there seems to be little interest in anything other than Daily Fantasy Sports regulation.
With DFS being such a hot topic it is hard seeing lawmakers taking a serious look at iPoker in 2016.
If we are to be proven wrong, there is a limited amount of time for them to act unless they use a tactic such as gut and amend.
We’ve often said that the “next few weeks will be telling” when talking about certain legislative matters. In this case, the next few weeks will determine whether iPoker legislation lives or dies in 2016.