Fri, 03/11/2011 – 21:06 – PokerPages Staff

What’s a governor with Presidential ambitions to do when faced with signing a bill into a law which many in his own party consider the work of Satan?  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – who has no known hostility to online poker – has been wrestling with just such a scenario, ever since both chambers of his state’s legislature passed the bill overwhelmingly late last year.  The bill, of course, would have created the very first intrastate gambling market in the USA.  But political calculations appear to have made their way into the Governor’s reasoning, and – as most poker enthusiasts will by now know – he chose to veto the bill at the last moment.

But is the proverbial fat lady singing her swansong, or is she just practicing a few scales?  The wording chosen by the Governor to explain his action is interesting, and does not amount to a condemnation or a moral rejection of the bill.  This may not endear him to the wing of the Republican Party he appears to be attempting to woo – those who think we are all about to slide down a steep, slippery slope into debauchery and vice at any moment, clutching a deck of playing cards as we descend.

Governor Christie said that as the bill stands, he was doubtful whether it could withstand an important constitutional test.  His view was that the bill contained a fatal “legal fiction,” namely that all wagers would be deemed to have “originated” in Atlantic City.  Such a fiction would be unable to overcome the “clear and unambiguous” language of New Jersey’s State Constitution, which expressly forbids out-of-state gambling, according to the Governor.

He placed the onus on his state’s lawmakers to “clear the way” for future internet gaming.  If they believe that it was in the best interests of New Jersey to extend gambling beyond Atlantic City, they will need to bring the issue to the ballot box and let voters decide.  It was a clever argument, and it has killed the bill, but it hasn’t made the issue go away.  There appears to be an invitation to campaign for democratic endorsement in the Governor’s comments.

Joe Brennan, Chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) was quick to express his disappointment in Christie’s decision, accusing the Governor of “squandering” the lead New Jersey might have seized in establishing the first center for i-gaming in the United States.  But he also intimated that the campaign for democratic endorsement was already on the table, with an internet gaming referendum about to be placed before the electorate.

California, Florida and Iowa may be feeling distinctly pleased with the Governor’s veto; it places the onus on them to assume the mantle of “First i-Gaming Center in the U.S.” now that New Jersey has forfeited that status.  They stand to attract the revenue, jobs and new investment that could have been New Jersey’s.  News has just broken, in fact, that Iowa’s State Government Committee has just passed an online poker bill (known as Senate Study Bill 1165) by a margin of 9-6.  It now moves on to the Senate Floor for a full vote which it seems likely it will secure.  Thereupon, it stands a good chance of being signed into law by Governor Terry Branstadt at State House.

Watch this space: online poker has lost a battle but has certainly not lost the war.