It looks as if Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer’s bill AB 167 seeking to legalise online gambling in California may be joining Mike Gatto’s similarly motivated AB9 measure in limbo.
Industry political observers have noted that, like Gatto’s bill, AB167 has been withdrawn from the agenda of next week’s Assembly hearing on the issue.
Assemblyman Jones-Sawyer has yet to comment on the withdrawal, although Gatto issued a statement two weeks back that he was withdrawing AB9 due to an inability to establish a consensus among the various interested parties (see previous reports).
After several unsuccessful years of trying to push a legalisation bill through, Assemblyman Jones-Sawyer is probably accustomed to the disappointment of another failure. He had tried this year to moderate previously tough draft in 2014, particularly regarding bad actor and race track exclusion provisions, but mainly tribal opposition has probably stifled his latest proposal.
Earlier this year a collective of tribes led by the Pechanga wrote to Jones-Sawyer rejecting the loosening of the bad actor and race track exclusion clauses and advising him that they would oppose his bill.
The only legalisation bill left standing in California now appears to be Senator Isadore Hall’s still incomplete proposal, which has an urgency clause attached as the deadline for bills to be approved looms in California.