The heat over sports betting appears to have shoved aside any interest in legalizing online poker in California.
Efforts to legalize iPoker in the Golden State are left cooling on the side on the road. Nevertheless, the state represents a prize that is hard for iPoker advocates to ignore for long. That includes a population of 40 million, and, as boosters of the state never fail to brag, the fifth largest economy in the world.
Online Poker Report quoted H2 Gambling Capital, which estimated that illegal offshore online casino generates about $200 million annually. That’s money unavailable to be taxed by California regulators. It’s also unavailable for legal card clubs and Indian casinos to tap.
Proponents of legalization point to the fact that, six years after legalizing online gaming, New Jersey will probably rake in $525 million in iGaming revenue. California, they say, would have an online poker market conservatively estimated as $100 million a year.
Besides paying state gaming taxes, licenses would also be a sure money-maker for the state, they say—not to mention jobs created, money spent on advertising and the leveraging effects on existing brick-and-mortar casinos.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 2018 decision to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and end the federal ban on sports gaming, much political capital was being spent in Sacramento on legalizing online gaming. Those same politicians quickly changed their focus to sportsbook.
There are several reasons for this. One is that virtually no gaming legislation can be introduced in the Golden State without the support of the larger Indian casinos. However, the gaming tribes are split over online poker, which makes it hard to reach a consensus. In addition, the state has a unique bifurcated regulatory gaming framework, with some regulatory oversight under the governor, and other oversight under the attorney general, who are independently elected officials.
A former California gaming regulator, Richard Schuetz, made a remark on Twitter that was quoted by Online Poker Report: “People don’t understand how much legal gambling takes place in California and how big the state is. During the iPoker debates, they would promise millions in tax revenues. It was what we called ‘budget dust.’”
Which means that big can sometimes be the enemy of the good, or the profitable.
