New York online poker bill tabled

ll seeking to legalise online poker in New York has been tabled for the second consecutive year by State Senator John Bonacic.

S 5302 differs from last year’s bill in that it does not include a so called “bad actor clause” that would ban companies that continued operating online services in the US after the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, which placed a federal ban on online gambling.

The total of operator licences that the bill would allow would be capped at 10, and operators would be taxed at a rate of 15% of gross gaming revenue.

Authorised games would include Texas hold’em and Omaha, along with “any other poker game that the commission determines is the material equivalent of either of those”, according to the text of the bill.

Licensees would be required to pay a fee of $10m in order to be granted a licence.

Bonacic and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Racing and Wagering, introduced companion bills to legalise online poker last year, but both bills were unsuccessful.

Should the bill be passed, then New York would become the fourth US state to have regulated online gambling, and would mirror Nevada’s law to allow online poker only.