ï»¿California Legislators Continue to Grapple with Gambling Options

California lawmakers will mull several state bills that could affect both land and online gambling efforts this year (Image: Michael Macor, The Chronicle)

A new California gambling bill approved week that is last the State Senate could up taxes and review regulatory procedures on the Golden State’s ever-expanding gaming industry. Introduced by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), SB 601 goes under the microscope of the gaming policy advisory committee comprised of both industry executives and members of the public, aided by the goal of determining perhaps the existing regulatory structures that are in place are aiding or abetting California’s current and future financial outlook.

Regulatory Review

Also, the panel will review the impact of their state’s numerous card clubs on both state and tax that is local, also as on costs to both. Yee stated he’s exploring the chance that more gaming that is non-Indian may help improve California’s ever-struggling coffers to be fuller.

‘Despite the news that is good’ve seen in budget projections, I think it’s always worth evaluating new revenue sources for our state,’ noted Yee. Once the committee review is complete, the new bill will move ahead to your state Assembly for further assessment.

Of course, as Newton so wisely noted, for each action there is a similar and equal effect, and nowhere does that hold truer than worldwide of gambling legislation. No sooner had been SB 601 delivered to light than the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion (CCAGE) popped up, declaring that the brand new bill ended up being nothing more but a gateway drug for loosening regulatory procedures for operators.

‘SB 601 should be amended to need a balanced check the laws and regulations regulating gambling, including maybe not only their impeding impact on the industry, nevertheless the social and economic expenses inevitably related to gambling expansion among California families and communities — e.g., increased debts, foreclosures and bankruptcies, divorces, suicides, etc.,’ said CCAGE in a letter to legislators about the bill.

Many Viewpoints, Little Agreement

Of course, Ca has a numerous factions and viewpoints with regards to gambling, so SB 601 is hardly the only legislation on the table in this arena right now. Also under review are SB 678 introduced by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) also called the ‘Authorization and Regulation of Web Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013,’ a bill targeted at legalizing poker that is online, which has the support of eight Indian tribes.

Then there’s SB 51 the ‘Web Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2013’ introduced by Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood). Of course, having been found responsible on eight counts of perjury and voter fraud week that is last Wright could have more to worry about than gambling legislation right now.

With 38 million residents to draw from, California holds by far the most promise of any U.S. state to help make big bucks from on the web gambling. In reality, a study that is recent jointly by the market research firm PokerScout along with consulting firm Academicon unveiled the Golden State has a $263 million revenue potential for its first 12 months of iGaming, should it choose to legalize it, and a $384 million possibility for year 10. That being said, other states such as Delaware have turned out to be pretty far off in their initial projections so far, but with California’s huge populace base, there’s way more prospective for hitting the mark or near to it in these projections.

Steve Wynn Joins Sheldon Adelson in Anti-Online Gambling Stance

Who woulda thunk it? Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn are now actually aligned in their anti-online gambling viewpoints (Image: msn.com)

They state politics makes for strange bedfellows, as well as the same could be said for the casino industry. Of course, the lines between politics and gambling industry policy that is regulatory get pretty blurry, and sometimes it’s difficult to discern one from the other, and such will be the case because of the new professional love affair between longtime anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson, and his new bestie and ally, Steve Wynn.

Macau Is Their Bond

Possibly their mutual success in Macau has established a new bond for the two casino magnates; whatever it is, Adelson and Wynn certainly two of the most established visionaries in the gambling industry have now also become aligned in an area where Adelson has found few business compadres to join him: his vehement fight against what he claims are the inherent evils of on line gambling in America.

Steve Wynn now says he concurs with the Las Vegas Sands CEO that online video gaming could be the apocalypse for underage morality in the U.S. if it gets a unilateral pass that is federal.

‘I end up agreeing with Sheldon,’ said Wynn recently.

That is a serious turnaround from the Steve Wynn who once predicted that Sheldon Adelson would eventually warm up to the thought of online video gaming. Au contraire; it appears it comes to the Internet’s potentially corrupting influence via online gambling that it is Wynn who has now seen ‘the light’ when.

Visions of Underage Online Gamblers

Wynn now refers towards the government that is federal ‘insatiable appetite for revenue,’ and foresees we are uncertain why exactly the probability of underage gamblers by the truckload sneaking through the regulatory checkpoints and this creating some form of American backlash towards gambling as a whole. Due to the fact there have certainly been incidents of underage gamblers engaging in land casinos underneath the radar at various points in time and the casinos usually get caught and fined for it without Joel Osteen making a Sunday pulpit commentary in the topic or pickets going up on the Las Las vegas Strip this seems a bit dramatic to us; but that’s Wynn’s tale and he is sticking to it.

‘This is not a good opportunity that is entrepreneurial’ maintains Wynn. ‘ Where is the business possibility? The problem that is big see is I don’t see the federal government letting us keep the money.’

Again, we’re not certain what evidence he has that 13-year-olds by the boatloads will be crashing online gaming web sites, but this generally seems to be Wynn’s primary focus and concern. He says that after viewing the latest technological software at sites run by UltimateGaming et al to theoretically block underage players, he is simply not convinced they are sophisticated enough to keep kids a bay. Despite the IT teams telling him the sites is going to be inaccessible to young ones, Wynn’s response was, ‘I’m sure it absolutely was impressive if you’re a cyber guy. But it was bullsh—.’

Wynn now seems to be on board with Adelson’s contention that young teenagers will figure out how to get online and gamble away each of their own or their parents’ cost savings. We’re not sure how sophisticated your combo of con and high-tech penetration skills could have become to pull that off; and while it’s no doubt a possible scenario, so is being hit by a vehicle whenever we drive, but that does not keep us from getting behind the wheel every day. Setting policy according to worst-case scenarios seems like an odd tactic to us, but exactly what do we understand; we’re maybe not billionaires with effective land casinos in the U.S. and Macau, are we?

As for Wynn, it’s a definite maybe in their viewpoints on this for now, anyway. And besides his concerns about underage issues, he is perhaps not sure he wants to try to transfer their upscale casino image up to a computer screen, and even just how that might be doable.

‘ I don’t know how to accomplish that on a screen that is 17-inch’ he said.

‘It’s possible it may change,’ Wynn included, regarding his views on Internet gambling. But he doesn’t think anybody’s opinion will change Congress’s deer-in-headlight stance on Internet gambling, irrespective.

‘[Legal gambling passage] can’t cope with the home of Representatives,’ he stated. ‘They can’t agree with anything, especially something this esoteric.’

2014 Florida session that is legislative Away from Gambling Expansion

The 2014 Florida legislative session now seems to be shying away from any focus on gambling although it looked hopeful last year.

Over the last year, there’s been plenty of speak about changing the gambling rules that dictate how gaming is run in Florida. There were telephone calls to grow the state’s casino offerings, along with plenty of support for reforming the regulations that are current remove loopholes and clarify what is legal for operators to offer. But despite all the crucial issues on the table and even though the entire year is in its incipiency it appears that the chances of any gambling laws passing in Florida in 2014 are getting longer by the day.

Republican Retreat

That news employs Republican legislative leaders had pledged to make the issue a concern late final year. Gambling ended up being on a list of legislative priorities that lawmakers presented to reporters ahead of the present session began, but whom now say it’s not likely anything will happen before some big actions take place.

House Speaker Will Weatherford said that his chamber would not act with no legislation coming in concert having a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to consider in on any possible gambling expansion.

‘I don’t think you’ll see us taking up gaming in the House,’ the Speaker said unless we can do that. For Weatherford, that statement covered ‘anything new,’ presumably including regulatory changes, along with the help of brand new gambling enterprises.

Legal actions Add to Delays

The prospect of legislation may have been hampered by the nearly two dozen lawsuits currently dealing with the continuing state after studies and hearings were held to examine the state’s gaming laws and regulations.

Those lawsuits cover a number of issues, including regulations on horse and dog race where battles over how events are conducted and whether tracks can host slots and other casino games happen raging for many time now.

‘There’s regulations. There’s dogs. There’s integrated resorts. There’s taxes. There’s slots. There is the compact. There’s decoupling. There’s injury reporting. Invest the all those pieces regarding the puzzle, they are doingn’t snap together that easily,’ stated Senate Gaming Committee Chairman Garrett Richter.

That compact could eventually turn out to be the issue that is largest regarding the table. Florida’s compact with the Seminole Tribe expires in 2015, and that deadline will sooner or later make video gaming come up on myfreepokies.com the legislative agenda whether lawmakers are ready because of it or perhaps not. At the minute, the lightweight allows the Seminole Tribe to have exclusive rights to banked card games like blackjack throughout the state in return for $1 billion in payments from the tribe over the span of five years. Renewing or proposing changes compared to that compact would have been a contentious issue, especially if Florida thinks it can make more by eliminating the exclusivity and allowing non-Indian casino designers to create in the state.

‘Gaming can be an problem that is forced towards the state either this year or next year by the Seminole compact is up for many renegotiation and when you do that you kind of touch the dominos that produce the rest affected,’ said Senate President Don Gaetz. ‘ I don’t genuinely believe that expansion of gaming or gaming legislation would be a Will Weatherford or a Don Gaetz concern.

‘It’s maybe not something we necessarily wish to be involved in,’ Gaetz said, ‘but it’s a thing that circumstances probably need either us or our successors to do some worthwhile thing about.’