A bill to legalize online poker in New York sailed through the state Senate’s Finance Committee, which means the measure is now headed to the full chamber for debate and a vote.
But the good news was clouded by news of a different sort alleging campaign finance shenanigans by the former CEO of Amaya Gaming, a major potential player in the New York market.
The committee vote in favor of Sen. John Bonacic’s S-3898 was largely expected since the full Senate approved Bonacic’s 2016 online poker effort by a wide margin.
It was in the Assembly where the momentum was halted.
Earlier this year, online poker’s leading advocate in the lower house, J. Gary Pretlow, said opinion had shifted to the point where the Assembly was ready to consider a bill. However, that looks to have changed, with Pretlow now reporting “serious objections” among some Assembly members concerned that there is too much gambling in the state. Opposition is also expected from the state’s influential tribal casino operators and the Assembly members in whose districts those casinos reside.
How Gov. Andrew Cuomo feels about the issue isn’t known, but the Amaya scandal isn’t going to help.
A complaint filed by Acting U.S. Attorney J.P. Kennedy accuses veteran Democratic Party operative Steve Pigeon of helping former Amaya CEO David Baazov illegally donate $25,000 to Cuomo’s 2014 re-election campaign.
The complaint alleges that Pigeon masked the contribution by making it appear to come from a Florida attorney, Marlon Goldstein, who had been appointed Amaya’s general counsel and an executive vice president just a month prior to the Manhattan event at which the donation was recorded.
Bonaciclater cut a “bad actor” clause from his 2015 bill?a provision that might have barred Amaya from doing business in New York because of its ownership of PokerStars. PokerStars pleaded guilty to federal charges four years earlier and paid a massive fine for taking bets in the U.S. in violation of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Kennedy’s complaint says Amaya paid Pigeon’s Papi Holdings $388,000 between 2010 and 2015 for consulting and lobbying services. Yet Pigeon never registered as representing Amaya, which at the time of the 2014 Cuomo event was represented in the state by lobbying firm Bolton-St. Johns.
Pigeon is also facing separate charges in connection with the illegal funding of other New York political campaigns and for allegedly bribing a state judge.
Baazov is slated to be tried in Canada in November on insider trading charges related to the PokerStars acquisition. He sold most of his Amaya holdings after lenders blocked him from acquiring the company and taking it private.
Observers say that Cuomo may find it necessary to distance himself from online poker for the time being by signaling his disapproval ahead of an Assembly vote. That doesn’t bode well since the current legislative session concludes at the end of June and an online poker bill will need to pass three Assembly committees between now and then to make it to a floor vote. Pretlow says that if there’s no action at the committee level over the next three weeks that vote is unlikely, and it will be wait till next year, all over again.
