
California lawmakers will mull several state bills that could affect both land and online gambling efforts this season (Image: Michael Macor, The Chronicle)
A new California gambling bill approved last week by 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 will go under the microscope of a gaming policy advisory committee comprised of both industry executives and members of the public, aided by the goal of determining whether the existing regulatory structures that are in place are aiding or abetting California’s current and future outlook that is economic.
Regulatory Review
Also, the panel will review the impact of their state’s numerous card groups on both state and tax that is local, also as on charges to both. Yee said he could be exploring the possibility that more gaming that is non-Indian may help improve California’s ever-struggling coffers to become fuller.
‘Despite the good news we’ve seen in budget projections, I believe it certainly is worth evaluating new revenue sources for our state,’ noted Yee. Once the committee review is complete, the new bill will move ahead towards the state Assembly for further assessment.
Needless to say, as Newton so wisely noted, for every single action there exists a similar and equal reaction, and nowhere does that hold truer than in the world of gambling legislation. No sooner ended up being SB 601 delivered to light than the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion (CCAGE) popped up, declaring that the new bill had been nothing more but a gateway drug for loosening regulatory procedures for operators.
‘SB 601 should be amended to need a look that is balanced the regulations governing gambling, including maybe not only their impeding impact on the industry, however the social and economic costs 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 program, Ca has a numerous factions and viewpoints in terms of gambling, so SB 601 is hardly the legislation that is only the dining table in this arena at this time. Also under review are SB 678 introduced by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) also referred to as the ‘Authorization and Regulation of Web Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013,’ a bill aimed at legalizing poker that is online, which has the help of eight Indian tribes.
Then there is SB 51 the ‘Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2013’ introduced by Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood). Of program, having been found guilty on eight counts of perjury and voter fraudulence last week, Wright could have more to worry about than gambling legislation right now.
With 38 million residents to draw from, Ca holds by far the promise that is most of any U.S. state to make big bucks from on line gambling. In reality, a present study conducted jointly by the marketplace research firm PokerScout along side consulting firm Academicon unveiled the Golden State has a $263 million revenue potential for the first year of iGaming, should it choose legalize it, and a $384 million possibility for year 10. That being said, other states such as Delaware have became pretty far off in their initial projections so far, but with California’s huge population base, there is a lot more possible for hitting the mark or close 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 say politics makes for strange bedfellows, as well as the same could also 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 hard to discern one from one other, and such would be the case because of the new expert romance between longtime anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson, and his new bestie and ally, Steve Wynn.
Macau Is Their Relationship
Perhaps their mutual success in Macau has established a bond that is new the two casino magnates; whatever it is, Adelson and Wynn definitely two associated with the most established visionaries in the gambling industry have additionally become aligned in an area where Adelson has found few company 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 will be the apocalypse for underage morality in the U.S. if it gets a unilateral federal pass.
‘I find yourself agreeing with Sheldon,’ said Wynn recently.
That is a serious turnaround from the Steve Wynn who once predicted that Sheldon Adelson would warm up to eventually the concept of online gaming. Au contraire; it appears that it is Wynn who has now seen ‘the light’ when it comes to online’s potentially corrupting influence via online gambling.
Visions of Underage Online Gamblers
Wynn now relates towards the government that is federal ‘insatiable appetite for revenue,’ and foresees we’re unsure why precisely the possibility of underage gamblers by the truckload sneaking through the regulatory checkpoints and also this creating some kind of American backlash towards gambling as a whole. Due to the fact there have certainly been incidents of underage gamblers getting into land gambling enterprises under the radar at various points in time and the casinos usually get caught and fined for it without Joel Osteen creating a Sunday pulpit commentary on the subject 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’s sticking to it.
‘This is not a good opportunity that is entrepreneurial’ keeps Wynn. ‘ Where is the business possibility? The big problem I see is I don’t see the government letting us keep the amount of money.’
Again, we are perhaps not sure what proof 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 claims that after viewing the latest software that is technological sites run by UltimateGaming et al to theoretically block underage players, he is not really convinced they are sophisticated enough to keep kids a bay. Despite the IT teams telling him the sites will be inaccessible to kids, Wynn’s response was, ‘I’m certain it had been impressive if you were a cyber man. But it had been bullsh—.’
Wynn now seems to be on board with Adelson’s contention that young teenagers will work out how to get online and gamble away all their own or their parents’ cost savings. We’re not sure how sophisticated your combo of con and high-tech penetration skills might have become to pull that off; and while it is without doubt a potential situation, so has been hit by an automobile whenever we drive, but that does not keep us from getting behind the wheel every day. Establishing policy based on worst-case scenarios seems like a tactic that is odd us, but just what do we all know; we’re not billionaires with effective land casinos in the U indian dreaming slots.S. and Macau, are we?
As for Wynn, it’s really a definite maybe in his viewpoints on this for now, anyway. And besides their concerns about underage issues, he is perhaps not sure he wants to attempt to transfer their upscale casino image to a computer screen, if not exactly how that might be doable.
‘ I do not discover how to accomplish that on a screen that is 17-inch’ he stated.
‘It’s possible it may change,’ Wynn added, regarding their views on Internet gambling. But he doesn’t think anyone’s opinion will change Congress’s deer-in-headlight stance on Internet gambling, regardless.
‘[Legal gambling passage] can’t cope with the homely house of Representatives,’ he pointed out. ‘They can’t acknowledge anything, especially something this esoteric.’
2014 Florida Legislative Session Shying Away from Gambling Expansion
Though it seemed hopeful final year, the 2014 Florida legislative session now is apparently shying away from any focus on gambling.
Within the year that is last there’s been plenty of speak about changing the gambling regulations that dictate how gaming is run in Florida. There have been phone calls to grow the state’s casino offerings, along with plenty of help for reforming the regulations that are current remove loopholes and clarify what exactly is legal for operators to offer. But despite every one of the important dilemmas on the table as well as though the entire year is in its incipiency it appears that the odds of any gambling laws moving in Florida in 2014 are getting longer by the day.
Republican Retreat
That news comes after Republican legislative leaders had pledged to help make the problem a concern year that is late last. Gambling ended up being on a list of legislative priorities that lawmakers presented to reporters before the session that is present, but who now say so it’s not likely anything will happen before some big actions take place.
House Speaker Will Weatherford said that his chamber would not work with no legislation arriving concert by having a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to weigh 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 addition of new casinos.
Lawsuits Add to Delays
The prospect of legislation may have been hampered by the nearly two dozen lawsuits currently facing the state after studies and hearings had been held to examine the state’s gaming laws.
Those lawsuits cover many different issues, including regulations on horse and dog race where battles over how events are conducted and whether tracks can host slots along with other casino games were raging for a few time now.
‘There’s regulations. There’s dogs. There’s integrated resorts. There’s taxes. There’s slots. There’s the compact. There’s decoupling. There is injury reporting. Invest the all those pieces associated with the puzzle, they don’t snap together that easily,’ said Senate Gaming Committee Chairman Garrett Richter.
That compact could fundamentally show to be the issue that is largest on the table. Florida’s compact with the Seminole Tribe expires in 2015, and that deadline will fundamentally make video gaming come up on the agenda that is legislative lawmakers are prepared because of it or not. At the minute, the compact allows the Seminole Tribe to have exclusive rights to banked cards like blackjack throughout hawaii in return for $1 billion in payments from the tribe over the length of five years. Renewing or proposing modifications to that compact would have been a contentious problem, especially if Florida thinks it makes more by detatching the exclusivity and allowing non-Indian casino designers to create in the state.
‘Gaming is definitely an issue that is forced to the state either this year or next year by the Seminole compact is up for some renegotiation and whenever you do this you kind of touch the dominos that produce everything else impacted,’ stated Senate President Don Gaetz. ‘ I do not believe expansion of gaming or gaming legislation would have been a Will Weatherford or perhaps a Don Gaetz priority.
‘It’s maybe not something we necessarily wish to be involved in,’ Gaetz said, ‘but it’s something that circumstances probably require either us or our successors to do something positive about.’
Recent Comments