Rod Wright: I'll keep fighting for online gambling in Cali
California Senator to reintroduce bill in January " has reached agreements with stakeholders "three or four times" in the past.
California Senator Rod Wright has vowed to continue his fight to bring legal online gambling to the state, despite his latest efforts, a co-sponsored bill with fellow Senator Darrell Steinberg, failing to garner enough support to prevail before the 31 August legislative deadline.
SB 1463 faced significant opposition from Native American groups, including the powerful Pechanga and Morongo tribes, the latter as part of the California Online Poker Association (COPA), a coalition of 29 tribes and 31 card rooms.
However Wright, who dramatically pulled his online poker bill from the Senate Governmental Organisation Committee in June due to lack of support, confirmed to eGR NA that he will reintroduce a bill in January.
The main obstacles remain the tribe’s desire to exclude the state’s racetracks from being able to offer online poker, as well as a clause which would oblige them to waive their sovereignty in order to undergo the thorough suitability checks during the licensing process.
Despite these concerns, along with an overarching fear among tribal groups that the legislation will cannabilise the revenues of their bricks and mortar casinos, Wright remains confident of reaching a universally accepted bill.
Indeed, he confirmed that he had in fact struck several agreements with tribal groups to progress the bill, only for lawyers to intervene to scupper the deal at the last minute.
“Nobody trusts anyone right now,” he said. “Fear is a very difficult emotion to overcome. I’ve had agreements three or four times but they have fallen apart.
“But if federal government makes any modifications to intrastate online gambling law then we will all feel very stupid as our opportunity to compete will have gone.”
He also confirmed that talks with stakeholders will continue over the coming months but could not confirm whether his co-sponsor Darrell Steinberg would re-join the efforts in the next legislative session.
Wright, who has been actively pursuing the regulation of online gambling and sports betting in California for almost four years, also refused to rule out the possibility of other politicians “making a run” with their own bill. “I’m not seeing it at the moment, but you never know,” he said.
Senator Wright will be speaking at eGR North America’s invite-only Power Summit in Laguna Beach, California, this week.