Saturday May 16,2015 : NEW YORK SENATOR BACK WITH ANOTHER ONLINE POKER LEGALISATION BILL
But there's a major and positive change in this year's proposal.
New York state Senator John Bonacic is taking another run at intrastate legalised online poker with the introduction this week of bill S5302, a measure that is almost identical to the Senator's proposal last year but with one critically important difference….it does not include a "bad actor" clause.
Instead, the bill makes the New York State Gaming Commission the logical and practical arbiter of who is suitable for licensing, should online poker be legalised. If passed, the bill tasks the Commission with drafting regulations within six months, and issuing licenses within a year.
Bonacic's S6913 proposal last year failed to make it out of committee, along with a companion bill in the state House launched by Representative Gary Pretlow.
Like its predecessor, the new bill was launched in the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee of the Senate, which Bonacic chairs.
The measure proposes 10-year online gambling licenses and caps the number of licensees in the state at ten, with a $10 million initial deposit required from each, and a suggested state tax rate of 15 percent based on gross gaming revenue.
Learning from other legalised states, Bonacic has also included authority to engage with other states that have taken the legalization route in sharing player pools.