GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 38 - July 2017

At the end of April, AB 1677, also known as the Internet Poker Consumer Protec- tion Act, was abandoned by the Golden State. Not only that, it could possibly be scrapped entirely, in favor of completely new legislation for 2018. On the bright side, at least they didn’t keep us in suspense the whole year. Despite championing AB 1677 in Febru- ary 2017, CaliforniaAssemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer decided to go ghost on us, leaving the bill to molder until next year. Assemblyman Adam Gray, who co-in- troduced the bill last year, also remains conspicuously silent. Of course, we all know variations of this bill have been under consideration for a lit- tle over a decade. So what gives this time? The short answer: suitability. The long answer is that demands have been made for amendments to the bill that would impose a five-year ban on companies that acceptedwagers after Black Friday (namely, PokerStars). Of course, some are not happy about this (see again: PokerStars). The most recent form of the bill does not feature any sort of penalty for accepting wagers post-UIGEA. A coalition led by the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians originally requested a 10-year ban that was brought down to five years after negotiations. The opposition, composed of the Morongo and SanManuel wall of shame The prospect of online poker legislation in California for 2017 is dead. California state emblem image by Yard 1509/Shutterstock 72 w w w . g p w a t i m e s . o r g Band of Mission Indians and – wait for it – PokerStars, as well as 14 other powerful state tribes, continued to rail against this pro- posed amendment for obvious reasons. It almost goes without saying that this sus- tainability language is a major issue, as nei- ther faction has been able to reach a suitable compromise. So the debate rages on. (Another compromise was suggested and subsequently rejected: A $20 million fine for operating in California after the UIGEA. That didn’t pan out and hasn’t been brought up again.) It might seem like all we have to do is wait patiently for 2018 to roll around. But things have become slightly more complicated. In April, the San Manuel Band of Mis- sion Indians removed themselves from the PokerStars alliance, greatly impacting the shape of any attempts at legalization. The 10-year effort to legalize poker has been a drain on the tribe’s resources and, like many of us, they felt getting this bill passed was a losing battle. The question of well-defined “bad actor” language will no doubt plague negotia- tions for the foreseeable future. PokerStars, we hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson about making money where you’re not supposed to. But who are we kidding? A buck is a buck. For now, it seems we have to wait for the rocky relations between tribes and oper- ators to be patched up and for some sort of compromise to be reached, a technique that the human race hasn’t quite mastered. Buckle yourselves in. It’s a longway to 2018. Well, that didn’t take long. Reggie Jones-Sawyer Adam Gray