Online Gambling Bill Stalls In California

New legislation aimed at making California the first state to legalize, tax and regulate online poker stalled on Tuesday in Sacramento.

Legislators are saying that it is temporarily being pulled from consideration while they addresses some of the concerns brought to the table by critics.

“This bill still needs a great deal of work,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rod Wright, a Democrat from Inglewood. “For every issue, there were people who liked it and people who hated it.”

Wright feels that online gaming like Internet poker is extremely popular in his state, but it goes on illegally. He thinks that California should benefit from its huge revenue potential.

According to some reports, more than 1 million Californians play online poker each week and it is estimated that by legalizing the game, it could generate as much as $2.1 billion annually.

While this bill appears to have a tremendous financial upside for the state, it has received criticism from both side of the gaming world.

Anti-gambling groups feel that legalizing online poker and other games will lead to an increase in problem gambling, especially among the state’s youth.

Internet gambling advocates criticized a provision in the bill that would make it a misdemeanor to visit unauthorized gambling websites.

Apparently, Wright has a lot of work to do to make every one happy.