California refuses to give up on Online Gambling

Submitted by Gary on Fri, 2010-06-04 at 19:19

California is one of the few states trying to legalize online gambling. Unfortunately, the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was implemented on June 1st of this year and has put some of the online gambling ambitions on hold. Although previous attempts at changing legislation have proved unsuccessful, the state has submitted one more bill to be reviewed.

The recent bill will allow for three online gambling licenses to be issued to the state. And while the UIGEA prevents financial institutions from processing any payments to and from online casinos, it does allow each state to govern their own policy in regards to online gambling provided they do not violate federal laws.

Specifically, the new bill would allow registered online gamblers to visit online casinos for a five-year period. After that period, the Senate would have another hearing to decide where online gambling stood within the state of California.

If online gambling were to be legalized in California, it would effectively cut out all gambling on unauthorized sites. The state would be able to closely monitor all online gambling because they would have some element of control over the authorized sites.

The bill still has to go through many stages before it is passed but those in favor of legalized online gambling are hoping that this bill makes it farther than the other bills.