All eyes will be on Gary Pretlow this year, as the New York State Assemblyman has insisted he will throw his weight behind online poker in the lower chamber. (Image: John Carl D’Annibale\/Times Union)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFirst, online poker was also included in the first draft of the Senate\u2019s 2016-17 budget and yet regulation did not happen. It was left out of the final version.<\/p>\n
And second, neither the House nor Governor Andrew Cuomo has made room for online poker regulation in their own budget plans.<\/p>\n
The next step, then, lies in the Senate convincing the House to come on board with their plan, or at least the online poker part of it. Whether the House is willing and able is really anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n
Poker in the House <\/b><\/h2>\n
Senator John Bonacic\u2019s online poker bill sailed through the Senate last year, passed by an emphatic margin of 53 to 5. But Bonacic\u2019s counterpart in the lower chamber, Representative Gary Pretlow, dragged his heels, grumbling about it being a \u201c1000-1 shot\u201d and, at one point, even questioned whether poker was a game of skill at all.<\/p>\n
It was an astonishing statement since one of the principle aims of the bill he was sponsoring was to reclassify poker as a game of skill.<\/p>\n
The bill is back this year, with the same sponsors in each chamber. The support is clearly there in the Senate but the appetite for online poker in the House is still a big unknown because it was never really tested by Pretlow last year.<\/p>\n
\nBut Pretlow has apparently changed his tune following a meeting with the New Jersey Division on Gaming Enforcement which helped him assuage some of his fears surrounding player security and protection in a future regulated market on New York.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nHe says he is now prepared to throw his weight behind the bill does not see foresee \u201cmuch opposition to moving this along.\u201d<\/p>\n
$110 Million Goes to Black Market<\/b><\/h2>\n
The final barrier to regulation, of course, may or may not come in the form of Governor Cuomo, whose personal feelings on the matter are unknown.<\/p>\n
However, his press secretary Dani Lever recently reminded local media that the state had only recently launched its first full commercial casino operations and that \u201cany proposal that could potentially impact that would have to be reviewed very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
A study commissioned in 2014 by\u00a0MGM\u00a0Resorts<\/a> suggested that New York residents could be spending as much as $110 million a year on the offshore online poker market.<\/p>\nWith a population of 19.75 million, more than twice that of New Jersey, it\u2019s believed online poker could boost state coffers to the tune of anything from $50 million to $161 million, depending, of course, on who you speak to.<\/p>\n
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The New York State Senate has included revenue from legalized, regulated online poker in its 2017-18 budget plan. But before you New York poker players break out the ticker tape start dancing, a couple of caveats. First, online poker was also included in the first draft of the Senate\u2019s 2016-17 budget and yet regulation did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":46996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,19,13,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
New York State Senate Factors Revenue from Online Poker into Draft Budget Plan<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n