Another online poker legalisation bill for Pennsylvania

April 8, 2015

Pennsylvania looks increasingly like the online poker legalisation hot spot at present, with this week seeing another bill introduced to the state House. The proposal, titled HB 920, comes from Representative Tina Davis, whom our readers will recall tried unsuccessfully in 2013 to achieve legalisation with an almost identical proposal that stalled in committee. Her […]

California breakthrough on internet poker?

April 5, 2015

A report over the weekend on the respected information site Online Poker Report suggests that an influential tribal group – the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians – may be moving away from its insistence that any California online poker legalisation bills contain “bad actor” exclusion clauses against companies that provided online gambling services to US […]

Sonnenberg poker saga comes to an end

March 29, 2015

Illinois court Judge David Herndon has ended the Sonnenberg saga, a long-running duo of class action lawsuits against Pokerstars and Full Tilt that dates back to 2012 (see previous reports). Illinois residents Kelly Sonnenberg and Judy Fahrner launched the litigation, citing the Illinois Loss Recovery Act, an old statute that allows individuals to collect “illegal […]

Barton online poker bill still in place

March 25, 2015

Very little has been heard this year from Texas Representative Joe Barton, a Republican who mid-2014 submitted an online poker legalisation bill to Congress which appeared to gain little traction. This week the Dallas News published an article suggesting that the Barton federal proposal was still in play, leaving the choice and style of legalisation […]

New Nevada bill confines interstate compacts to online poker

March 22, 2015

Unconfirmed reports from usually reliable sources like Nevada gambling journalist Jon Ralston have suggested that land casino billionaire and anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson is the behind-the-scenes driver of a new Nevada political proposal that seeks to restrict any state player-sharing agreement with other states to online poker only. Whilst that may be conjecture, what […]

Tribal gaming chief pessimistic on Californian online poker

March 17, 2015

Although calling for legalised and regulated online poker in California, the chairman of the Santa Ysabel Tribal Gaming Commission, Dave Vialpando, opined this week that it was unlikely that such a goal will be achieved in 2015, blaming the self-interest of many of the gambling groups involved. Vialpando observed in a statement: “Too many potential […]

California tribes protest internet poker bill

March 12, 2015

Disagreement over what form online poker legalisation should take in California continued this week with six tribal gambling groups expressing their opposition to Rep. Reggie Jones-Sawyer’s AB167 proposal. The first group to note their disapproval in a communication with Jones-Sawyer was the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego, apparently acting independently. That […]

Nebraska lawmakers nix online poker bill

March 4, 2015

Nebraskan Senator Paul Schumaker’s bill LR10CA proposing the dismantling of a ban on gambling in Nebraska was quickly dealt with this week in Nebraska’s State Legislature. Senators seated before the General Affairs Committee voted 27-16 to indefinitely postpone the measure after less than an hour’s debate.

Another legalisation bill introduced in Pennsylvania

March 4, 2015

Keeping the political pot boiling in Pennsylvania this week, Representative Nick Miccarelli has re-introduced his online poker legalisation bill, which failed to make it in 2014. Now titled HB695, the bill reportedly has the same content as the original, although that has yet to be confirmed by full publication. If that is the case, then […]

Online poker legalisation – a third Californian bill launched

February 20, 2015

The Californian online poker legalisation scene just became more interesting following the introduction in the state House and Senate of a new bill authored by two powerful state politicians. State Sen. Isadore Hall and Assemblyman Adam Gray are respectively the chairs of the Senate and the House Governmental Organization committees, putting considerable clout behind the […]