California
In today’s blog we’ll be addressing an often troublesome issue: Whether internet gambling is legal in California. While the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 didn’t outright ban online gambling (instead it attempted to ban financial institutions from processing online casino payments), many Californian gamblers are rightly confused over whether they can legally wager online.
The Californian online gambling issue is almost as complicated as the UIGEA, but we’ll bring you the relevant, recent information you need when it comes to making a decision on whether, as a resident of California, you can gamble via the internet.
A report from the LA Times in December reported how the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and Commerce Casinos had joined together to encourage the Californian government into legalising online poker. Using a loophole in the UIGEA, such a law would be possible, provided the internet gambling websites were only available to Californian residents and operated within state lines. While the aforementioned consortium of casinos, who will have their proposal heard and discussed in February, are keen to legalise online poker. Tribe owned casinos in the state currently have a legal monopoly on electronic slots, so it’s unlikely that California would be able to offer a wide range of casino games.
Officials in California has been open to the idea of online gambling before and in 2008, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine proposed a study examining the feasibility of legalising online poker. It’s been estimated that internet poker games could generate an impressive $1 billion for California, desperately needed to close the $12.4 billion+ deficit the state is facing. Senator Dean Florez has suggested that online poker is “is workable and a potential source of new revenue” and it’s believed 2010 may be the year officials in California decide whether to legalise internet gambling.
Currently then, internet gambling in California is as much of a grey area as in any state. As the implementation of the strict UIGEA legislation has been delayed, online gambling in the United States is technically still legal, at least on the gameplay side of things. While California is one of the most lenient states when it comes to internet gambling, unfortunately Californian residents are in the same position as all of their nearby state neighbours: Stuck between a rock (the UIGEA) and a hard place (the uncertainty, delays and issues the UIGEA has caused).
