A comment at an i-gaming conference by a California politician has triggered a new initiative designed to make political representatives in the state aware that online poker legalisation is still very much a live issue on which positive action is awaited.
The politician was Representative Mike Gatto, author of one of the four bills currently languishing in the state legislature whilst the various interested parties wrangle over the shape and form of a possible regulated regime for the pastime.
Gatto illustrated the relatively low profile of online poker legalisation by commenting that of the 60,000 emails received by his office only four or five were about the subject. In Gatto’s view, this made the issue a fringe matter for legislators.
Gatto’s opinion motivated the poker information site California Online Poker.com to launch an appeal for the many players in the state to spare a few minutes to let their lawmakers know that there is significant interest in the possibility of licensed and regulated online poker.
Hopefully this will add some momentum to an issue that has been unsuccessfully kicked around by the political and lobbying establishment for the past several years.
California Online Poker has set up a website page to facilitate this process; online poker fans can sign up to a petition, and additionally access information on their political representatives and channels – including email, telephone and social media – through which they can be contacted.
The relevant webpage is here: http://www.californiaonlinepoker.com/allinca/