Online poker effort dies in New York

The State Assembly is reportedly set to reject tomorrow the bill that would legalise online poker in New York.

US.- Bill sponsor Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, D-Westchester County, commented that that Assembly Democrats discussed the bill last week behind doors and that they’re not confident that the issue will be picked up before the legislative session ends tomorrow.

The NY Daily News reported that Pretlow said that there was some opposition to online poker in New York and that they’ll pick it up next year more than likely. The online poker bill was set to be evaluated by the New York State Senate last week, and it was believed that it had an actual shot at being passed. The online poker bill was also modified to add the label of “bad actor” in order to extent authorities of granting licenses to companies that may comply with requirements.

The current bill is not the first attempt to regulate the sector in New York, as last year the Senate approved a bill but failed to repeat in the Assembly as J. Gary Pretlow shelved it without even discussing it.

New York would’ve become the fourth state to offer some type of online gambling, as Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware are the only ones allowed to do it. Other states like Pennsylvania are still trying to fully regulate and legalise the industry.