
Ca lawmakers will mull several state bills that could affect both land and online gambling efforts this season (Image: Michael Macor, The Chronicle)
A new California gambling bill approved last week by the State Senate could up taxes and review regulatory procedures on the Golden State’s ever-expanding gaming industry. Introduced by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), SB 601 goes under the microscope of the gaming policy advisory committee comprised of both industry executives and members of the general public, with all the goal of determining whether the current regulatory structures that are in place are aiding or abetting California’s current and future financial outlook.
Regulatory Review
Furthermore, the panel will review the effect of the state’s numerous card groups on both state and neighborhood tax flows, aswell as on fees to both. Yee said he could be exploring the chance that more gaming that is non-Indian may help improve California’s ever-struggling coffers to be fuller.
‘Despite the news that is good’ve seen in budget projections, I do believe it’s always worth looking at new revenue sources for our state,’ noted Yee. Once the committee review is complete, the bill that is new move on towards the state Assembly for further assessment.
Needless to say, as Newton so sensibly noted, for each and every action there exists a similar and equal effect, and nowhere does that hold truer than worldwide of gambling legislation. No sooner was SB 601 taken to light than the Ca Coalition Against Gambling Expansion (CCAGE) popped up, declaring that the bill that is new absolutely nothing more but a gateway drug for loosening regulatory procedures for operators.
‘SB 601 should be amended to need a look that is balanced the laws and regulations regulating gambling, including not only their impeding effect on the industry, however the social and economic costs inevitably related to gambling expansion among California families and communities — e.g., increased debts, foreclosures and bankruptcies, divorces, suicides, etc.,’ stated CCAGE in a letter to legislators in regards to the bill.
Many Viewpoints, Little Agreement
Of course, Ca has a numerous factions and viewpoints when it comes to gambling, so SB 601 is hardly the legislation that is only the table in this arena at this time. Additionally under review are SB 678 introduced by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) also called the ‘Authorization and Regulation of online Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013,’ a bill targeted at legalizing online poker only, which has the support of eight Indian tribes.
Then there’s SB 51 the ‘Web Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2013’ introduced by Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood). Of course, having been found accountable on eight counts of perjury and voter fraudulence week that is last Wright may have more to worry about than gambling legislation right now.
With 38 million residents to draw from, California holds by far the most promise of any U.S. state to help make a lot of money from on the web gambling. In fact, a present study conducted jointly by industry research firm PokerScout along side consulting company Academicon revealed the Golden State has a $263 million revenue potential for its first 12 months of iGaming, should it choose to legalize it, and a $384 million possibility for year 10. That being said, other states such as Delaware have turned out to be pretty far off in their projections that are initial far, but with California’s huge populace base, there’s way more potential for hitting the mark or near to it in these projections.
Steve Wynn Joins Sheldon Adelson in Anti-Online Gambling Stance
Who woulda thunk it? Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn are actually aligned in their anti-online gambling viewpoints (Image: msn.com)
They state politics makes for strange bedfellows, and also the same could be said for the casino industry. Of course, the lines between politics and gambling industry regulatory policy can get pretty blurry, and sometimes it’s hard to discern one from the other, and such is the case because of the brand new professional romance between longtime anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson, and his new bestie and ally, Steve Wynn.
Macau Is Their Relationship
Possibly their mutual success in Macau has established a bond that is new the two casino magnates; whatever it really is, Adelson and Wynn undoubtedly two of this most established visionaries in the gambling industry have now also become aligned in an area where Adelson has found few company compadres to join him: his vehement fight against what he claims are the inherent evils of online gambling in America.
Steve Wynn now says he concurs aided by the vegas Sands CEO that Web gaming could be the apocalypse for underage morality into the U.S. if it gets a unilateral pass that is federal.
‘I find yourself agreeing with Sheldon,’ said Wynn recently.
This will be a serious turnaround from the Steve Wynn who once predicted that Sheldon Adelson would eventually warm up to the thought of online gaming. Au contraire; it seems it comes to the Internet’s potentially corrupting influence via online gambling that it is Wynn who has now seen ‘the light’ when.
Visions of Underage Online Gamblers
Wynn now relates to the federal government’s ‘insatiable appetite for revenue,’ and foresees we are not sure why exactly the risk of underage gamblers by the truckload sneaking through the regulatory checkpoints and this creating some type of American backlash towards gambling as a whole. Considering that there have actually certainly been incidents of underage gamblers engaging in land casinos underneath the radar at various points in time and the casinos usually get caught and fined for it without Joel Osteen creating a Sunday pulpit commentary regarding the subject or https://myfreepokies.com/indian-dreaming-slot-review/ pickets increasing on the Las Vegas Strip this seems a bit dramatic to us; but that is Wynn’s tale and he is sticking to it.
‘This is not a good entrepreneurial possibility,’ maintains Wynn. ‘ Where is the continuing business possibility? The big problem I see is I don’t see the federal government letting us keep the amount of money.’
Again, we are perhaps not sure what evidence he has that 13-year-olds by the boatloads will be crashing online gaming web sites, but this appears to be Wynn’s primary concern and focus. He says that after viewing the latest software that is technological sites run by UltimateGaming et al to theoretically block underage players, he is not convinced they are sophisticated sufficient to keep kids a bay. Despite the IT teams telling him the sites are going to be inaccessible to young ones, Wynn’s response was, ‘I’m yes it absolutely was impressive if you’re a cyber guy. But it had been bullsh—.’
Wynn now seems to be up to speed with Adelson’s contention that young teenagers will figure out how to get online and gamble away each of their own or their moms and dads’ cost savings. We’re not sure how sophisticated your combo of con and high-tech penetration skills could have become to pull that down; and while it is no doubt a possible situation, so is being hit by a car once we drive, but that doesn’t keep us from getting behind the wheel every day. Establishing policy according to worst-case scenarios seems like an odd tactic to us, but what do we know; we’re maybe not billionaires with successful land casinos into the U.S. and Macau, are we?
As for Wynn, it’s a maybe that is definite his viewpoints on this for the time being, anyway. And besides his concerns about underage issues, he is maybe not sure he wants to you will need to transfer his upscale casino image to a computer screen, or even just how that would be doable.
‘ I do not know how to accomplish that on a 17-inch display screen,’ he stated.
‘It’s possible it might alter,’ Wynn added, regarding their views on Internet gambling. But he doesn’t think anybody’s opinion shall change Congress’s deer-in-headlight stance on Internet gambling, irrespective.
‘[Legal gambling passage] can’t cope with the home of Representatives,’ he stated. ‘They can not acknowledge anything, especially something this esoteric.’
2014 Florida Legislative Session Shying Away from Gambling Expansion
The 2014 Florida legislative session now seems to be shying away from any focus on gambling although it looked hopeful last year.
Over the last year, there’s been plenty of talk about changing the gambling guidelines that dictate how gaming is run in Florida. There have been calls to grow the state’s casino offerings, along with lots of support for reforming the regulations that are current remove loopholes and clarify what is appropriate for operators to offer. But despite every one of the essential problems on the table and even though the season is in its incipiency it appears that the odds of any gambling laws moving in Florida in 2014 are getting longer by the day.
Republican Retreat
That news uses Republican legislative leaders had pledged to make the issue a priority year that is late last. Gambling was for a list of legislative priorities that lawmakers presented to reporters ahead of the current session began, but who now say it’s unlikely any such thing will take place before some big steps occur.
House Speaker Will Weatherford said that his chamber would not act without any legislation coming in concert with a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to weigh in on any possible gambling expansion.
‘Unless we are able to do that, I do not think you will see us taking up gaming in the home,’ the Speaker stated. For Weatherford, that statement covered ‘anything new,’ presumably including regulatory changes, along with the help of brand new casinos.
Lawsuits Add to Delays
The prospect of legislation may have been hampered by the nearly two dozen lawsuits currently dealing with the continuing state after studies and hearings were held to review their state’s video gaming laws and regulations.
Those lawsuits cover a variety of issues, including regulations on horse and dog race where battles over how events are conducted and whether tracks can host slots along with other casino games are raging for some time now.
‘There’s regulations. There’s dogs. There’s integrated resorts. There is taxes. There’s slots. There’s the compact. There’s decoupling. There is injury reporting. If you take all those pieces of this puzzle, they are doingn’t snap together that easily,’ said Senate Gaming Committee Chairman Garrett Richter.
That compact could ultimately show to be the biggest problem regarding the table. Florida’s compact with the Seminole Tribe expires in 2015, and that deadline will fundamentally make gaming come up on the agenda that is legislative lawmakers are ready for this or maybe not. The compact allows the Seminole Tribe to have exclusive rights to banked card games like blackjack throughout the state in exchange for $1 billion in payments from the tribe over the course of five years at the moment. Renewing or proposing changes to that compact will be a contentious issue, especially if Florida thinks it will make more by removing the exclusivity and allowing non-Indian casino developers to build within the state.
‘Gaming is an issue that is forced to your state either this 12 months or year that is next the Seminole compact is up for some renegotiation and when you accomplish that you sort of touch the dominos that produce anything else affected,’ said Senate President Don Gaetz. ‘ I do not think that expansion of gaming or gaming legislation could be a Will Weatherford or even a Don Gaetz priority.
‘It’s maybe not something we necessarily wish to be tangled up in,’ Gaetz said, ‘but it’s a thing that circumstances probably require either us or our successors to do some worthwhile thing about.’
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