California Legalisation and regulation of internet gambling stalls

Tuesday August 23,2011 :  CALIFORNIA INTERNET GAMBLING STALLS
 
Legalisation and regulation of internet gambling has merit but will not happen this year
 
An effort to legalise and regulate internet gambling in California has stalled with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg addressing the issue in a letter to stakeholders, this week.
 
Steinberg admits the issue of legalising internet gambling in California has merit, however, "significant and unresolved issues remain", he wrote specifically referring to tribal exclusivity, the games that would be authorised, the impact on sovereign nations' interests, Federal constitutional issues and the process of gaming site licensee eligibility.
 
"We believe that well thought out, fair solutions to these differences can be reached, but not before the end of this legislative year on September 9th," said the letter by Steinberg, D-Sacramento and Inglewood Democrat Sen. Roderick Wright, who chairs the Senate's Governmental Organization Committee that oversees gambling regulation.
 
Steinberg believes legalising internet gambling has the potential to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to state coffers but that existing proposals are not good enough and "rushing to meet a legislative deadline on an issue of such significance for our state and our people would be unwise".
 
The Senate Governmental Organization Committee will revisit the issue with a hearing to be held in January 2012.
 
The letter can be read in its entirety at http://www.scribd.com/doc/62852469/Steinberg-Letter-on-Internet-Gambling