Things in New York’s online poker world haven’t really been exceptionally great over the past few years. Nothing has ever really managed to move forward with the bills that are brought into question. It was only recently that we reported on Assemblyman Gary Pretlow pushing for online poker to be made legal in The Empire State. Alas, while such a push from Pretlow is great, it hasn’t really done much in previous years.
Things could be about to change for New York though, because the online poker bill that has been laying around in the State Senate since the month of January finally saw some life injected into it recently. The bill was actually sent from the Finance Committee and into the Rules Committee. However, the legislative clock in the state is ticking away, meaning that it’s going to be yet another time period of rushing to get the bill pushed through.
The Senate of New York has actually been quite forthcoming with pushing an online poker bill through, and this has happened in the past two years. However, it has seemed that all the efforts of the Senate have been harshly cast aside once the New York Assembly takes over proceedings. The previous two times, the bill hasn’t even been brought forward to vote on, let alone discussed.
What Comes Next?
This year, it seemed as though the Senate had chosen to leave the online poker bill to another chamber. However, so many excuses and nonsense were brought up during discussions that it seemed as though the Senate and everyone else in New York had given up on the idea of online poker for the state yet again. However, this could also be the reason behind the supposed resurrection of the bill.
Alas, with the state’s legislative period set to end on June 20 (and various lawmakers looking to see such finish sooner), the online poker bill has such a short time period left. This short amount of time has even led to the matter of sports betting being left to the side. Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke of this decision, saying that nothing will happen this year, simply because of the small number of days that are left within the legislative season.
That being said, the Senate of New York has shown in the past that it has the great ability of being able to pass legislation right at the end of the session. Should it decide to make a move when it comes to online poker, there’s a strong possibility that the bill will be passed. Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that the bill would also continue to be passed over by the Assembly, no doubt. Yet, online poker may have an alternative path to take in New York. Perhaps the Senate could combine the online poker and sports betting bills into one single legislation possibility.
It would be a good move, because with the rate that things are moving in neighbouring states regarding sports betting, New York could find itself isolated as others rise up with offerings of such.
