Whilst New York originally vowed its support for online poker, albeit, without any real legal framework, things have turned out rather differently. On Wednesday, the NY Assembly officially ended its session without passing any online poker or sports betting legislation, meaning that the issue has been put on the backburner.
It was likely that the state would have had its own legalized online poker in 2018, drawing from the publication of an online poker bill, which was introduced to the New York State Senate in January. Entitled S 3898, the bill was slowly trying to pass through the legal motions in a bid to lay the groundwork for future online poker.
The warning of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, too, has come to pass, with the Governor speaking for the Associated Press that nothing was likely to happen this year with online poker betting, as sports betting was a rather more pressing matter.
With the repealing of PASPA, it’s understandable why online poker fell out of the limelight and legislators began thinking ways of implementing the fully-legalized gambling segment instead.
The Future of Online Poker Moving Forward
If only relegated, online poker will experience some turbulence, of course, and they will again have to do with how well the state handles the issue of sports betting. The implementation of rapid working measures will see sports betting firms take a foothold, opening up the venues for other investment – such as the game itself.
On the flipside, if NY fails to clear sports betting and put it into law, we will then have to experience even greater delays in the legalization of the card game. Even more promising still, we may see the online poker bit be lumped together with the sports betting bill, which will make the passing of any pertinent legislation later on at least a modicum easier.
A Worthy Middleground
Yes, ultimately seeing poker and sports betting reunited under the banner of the same federation would be practical, as it would allow clearing an initial hurdle in the further development of the industries. Upon successful implementation and legalization, the two segments may either start to inch further from each other or just operate under their dedicated management.
More changes may ensue further down the road and there is a slight chance that in the event sports betting hits a snag, we may have to spend another year without the topic of online poker broached.
Meanwhile, a number of states have been forging ahead with their online poker operations, including New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada and Pennsylvania has been inching towards an imminent launch, which should be quite the relief for those of us who have been looking forward to it.
New York needs to catch up to the other states or it will see the majority of respectable bookmakers and poker websites head out for neighbouring regions and generally focus their efforts in places where the gambling climate is at least a wee bit more accommodating. We will continue to follow the topic with the utmost interest.
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