A bill to legalise online gaming in California has been withdrawn by the US state’s Senator, Lou Correa, ending hopes of securing approval this year.
Correa is the author of the bill and chairman of the Senate Governmental Organisation Committee, which oversees all gambling measures.
He said that there was not enough time left in the legislative session to refine the bill and prepare it properly for a vote. The proposal has been debated for five years in California’s Legislature.
“Internet poker is an important public policy,” Correa said. “We need to make sure it’s done right.”
Correa will be unable to re-submit the bill as his tenure as Senator is coming to an end.
A second pending bill to legalise online poker in the state has also stalled at the committee stage. The bill was introduced earlier this year by Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer Sr..
In May, a report by Capitol Matrix Consulting estimated that online poker would generate $800 million (€587 million) and create more than 2,000 jobs for the Californian economy by the end of the decade.
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
