The entrenched positions of interested parties in California has again ensured that the legalisation of online poker has not progressed beyond committee stage as the current legislative session ended this week.
The session started with strong hopes and four different political proposals, but ended with just one – the skeletal AB431 authored by Assemblyman Adam Gray – still bogged down at committee stage after making it through the Governmental Organization Committee chaired by its author.
Despite high profile hearings, PR campaigns, extensive media coverage and a storm of lobbying by various groups, California remains bereft of legalised online poker in the absence of a consensus among the tribal, cardroom, race track and online poker interests.