Internet poker in California gets boost as state rejects budget cuts

Online poker in California has come another step closer after the US state rejected an $11bn tranche of cuts designed to ease its projected $25bn budget crisis.

The rejection lends support to the legalisation of intrastate poker in California as a source of tax revenue, a framework bill for which is being presented to stakeholders this week, as reported on EGRmagazine.com.

According to gambling data specialists H2 , the bill could be worth US$250m a year in tax revenues to the state.

California state controller John Chiang said legislators needed to approve cuts by the end of this week or he would have to start issuing IOUs.

Chiang told Reuters: “The state’s inability to balance its chequebook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses.”

State treasurer Bill Lockyer is also planning to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs.

Rejection of the cuts lends credibility to the view of the Poker Voters of America’s chief lobbyist Chris Gallardo, who this week said the bill to legalise intrastate poker in California will be a “smooth sail” once stakeholders feedback on the proposal.

Gallardo, the lead lobbyist for the grassroots lobbying group’s push in California, told eGaming Review this week that he thought online poker could help ease the pain to the governor and other state politicians of making cutbacks to essential programmes.

With the California government able to file for temporary regulatory structures to push urgent initiatives through, Gallardo said America’s most populous state could be collecting tax revenues from online poker from as early as January 2010.

“When I worked in the California legislature, I saw bills drafted and passed in hours, because those issues were a priority for the state,” Gallardo said.

As reported on EGRmagazine.com, California-based CyberArts recently threw down the gauntlet to rival GTech ahead of the legal online poker, while GTech’s newly rebranded egaming arm G2 said it is confident of regulatory clearance.

In other poker news this week, EGRmagazine.com revealed that billionairre Bodog maverick Calvin Ayre is launching a new poker network; state governor Charlie Grist signed a bill to undertake a study into the impact of legal intrastate online poker on Florida and PartyGaming said it is launching a poker team.

For more on this topic, see our feature on Californian online poker.

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Internet poker in California gets boost as state rejects budget cuts

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