Poll: Should PokerStars face a five-year ban from California?

In a surprising turn of events, the world’s largest poker operator is now lobbying against a bill to legalise poker in the most populous US state.

PokerStars adopted its new position late last week, in response to new amendments to poker legislation making its way through the California State Assembly.

The changes would ostensibly ban the operator from the state until 2022, although PokerStars believes the language of the bill could amount to a lifetime ban.

Supporters of the bill claim PokerStars built up its customer database in the period after UIGEA in 2006 and before Black Friday in 2011 when most other operators had left the market, gaining a major competitive advantage ahead of a potentially re-regulated market.

In contrast, PokerStars and its allies argue the operator has changed ownership and leadership since that date and is now under the umbrella of a publically traded company and one of the “most vetted and licensed gaming companies in the world”.

The fact PokerStars is now licensed in New Jersey following an extensive review by the state’s gaming regulator should reflect favourably on the operator.

With this in mind, this week’s poll asks whether it is fair that PokerStars could be required to sit on the sidelines while competitors build their own California following.

Or has PokerStars already paid its penalty for that period (a $105m fine) and should now be subject to the same rules and regulations as its rivals? Have your say on the right-hand side of the page.