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While getting the state of Pennsylvania to legalize online poker was a huge get for the industry, the big Kahuna would most certainly be New York State.
With a population of 19,849,399, New York has more people than all but 53 other countries and is ranked 4th largest in the U.S. behind California, Texas and Florida.
New York State Assemblyman Gary Pretlow has vowed to get online poker legislation passed by next month.
Pretlow and Senator John Bonacic introduced online poker bill’s AB-5250 and SB-3898 to their respective legislature. SB-3898 has already passed in the state Senate while AB-5250 has failed to make it to the Assembly floor.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie bringing the bill to the floor is all that should be needed, Pretlow expressed to Online Poker .net.
Pretlow said: “To get it to the floor is all that’s needed. He’s not going to guarantee passage, but get it to the floor and I’ll debate it and get it passed.”
New York, a state desperately searching for new revenue streams to offset a $4.4 billion budget deficit, has already embraced Daily Fantasy Sports and Pretlow is expected to introduce a standalone sports betting bill following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that abolished a decades long prohibition of the activity.
As the Assemblyman then explains:
“This will be helpful to getting online poker done. There are more people interested in pursuing sports betting than pursuing online poker. For whatever reason, people consider online poker to be gambling but don’t consider sports betting to be gambling. I’m going to show them this is all gaming, and all forms of gaming happening are related.”
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
