Californian senators introduced a bill on Friday that will legalize online poker in the state. Senator Darrell Steinberg and Senator Roderick Wright introduced the Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012, which seeks to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state between 2012 and 2021.
Many politicians in the state are examining the potential online gambling has to help bring the state’s budgetary crisis under control.
The bill proposes that only online poker will be permitted for the first two years of regulation, and that the department may phase in other games at a later stage.
The bill faces opposition from the divided tribal casino community in California, which generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue, and make major donations to political campaigns. Some tribes fear that they may not be able to compete with giants in the industry.
