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.

Sat, 02/12/2011 – 03:38 – PokerPages Staff

In November last year, New Jersey claimed the honor of becoming the first state ever to pass a bill regulating and licensing online poker through its legislative body, the state senate.  Governor Chris Christie has yet to declare whether he will use his power of veto to kill the bill, but in many respects it would be a surprising – and financially destructive – move if he did.  The Governor is not known for his hostility to online poker and, presidential ambitions aside, he may be more inclined to adopt a pragmatic policy to increase much-needed revenue for his State – which taxing a lucrative internet poker business will certainly achieve – than try to appease his more fundamentalist Republican colleagues.

The latter are rarely satisfied that the descent into debauchery and decadence they fear can be halted; so terrified are they that we’re all poised to slide down the slippery slope into moral depravity that the moment one draconian law is passed, they immediately want another.  Blocking this bill is unlikely to mollify them; they’re far more likely to seek more clampdowns and prohibitions instead. But what about other states?  Can we begin to speak of a “New Jersey Effect?”

Just a few short years ago, it looked as though California might have beaten New Jersey to the statute book.  Back in 2008, it was the Sunshine State which was poised to become the first in America to regulate and license online poker.  But the coalition which had fought for the bill began to fight like cats in a sack, with card rooms and other gambling interests competing prematurely over who would get the biggest slice of the cake and the Indian casinos breaking out into some very unbrotherly infighting.  The bill fell apart as a result.

But New Jersey’s recent success has started to refocus interest in a Californian equivalent.  The new Executive Director of Poker Voters of America, Patrick Dorinson, is more confident than ever that his organization and the Morongo Tribe’s California Online Poker Association (COPA) can co-operate productively on getting a bill through the state legislature.

Dorinson believes that a consensually agreed bill supported by these two major associations is now a real possibility.  He certainly has strong credentials to achieve this ambition – Dorinson previously worked as a spokesperson for the Morongo Association.  Interestingly, there seems to be a complete lack of rancor about his departure from that position: he was “let go” by COPA but maintains that it was a pragmatic decision borne of a budget cut and that he left on good terms.  He subsequently threw his weight behind the Poker Voters of America because he remains committed to pushing for the legalization of online poker.
 
Dorinson is a veteran of Californian state politics, serving on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press staff during the campaign to become Governor and playing a leading role during the 1990s in the Independent System Operator, the manager of California’s electricity grid.

He regards the New Jersey development as a valuable impetus to spur the supporters of online poker on in California.  And, he insists, these now include most of the tribes and card rooms in the state, who have realized that internet poker – far from threatening their bricks-and-mortar establishments – is likely to help them prosper.

The coming weeks and months will reveal whether a New Jersey Effect has indeed got some wind into its sails; but with Californian politicians looking for ways of raising revenue without increasing taxes, the prospects for online poker look better than they have for a very long time.