Poker is a Saving Grace
The online casino gambling industry has the potential to make a lot of money for
the states that decide to embrace this form of gambling and harness the power of
internet poker gambling rather than blatantly ban the activity. The fact of the
matter is quite simple – US citizens are going to gamble at the online casinos
and poker sites despite any measures that the US federal and state governments
put into effect. With that in mind, there is a huge potential for the state
governments to embrace internet poker and reap the huge possible revenues. State
budgets throughout the US have suffered a lot in the past two years as the
recession rages on, businesses lose money and individuals lose their job.
California is one of the states that has seriously considered the legalization
of online poker within the confines of the state as a way to flush out the state
budget.
Poker enthusiasts have long supported this bill in California but there was a
lot of political opposition to the bill when it was first raised as a
possibility. Now that the state budget is in dire straits though, there is a
renewed interest in adding online casino poker gambling revenue. In fact, it
seems as though the California budget concerns could very well be the motivating
factor for quickly passing this bill through into law.
Some of the fiercest opposition to the new online casino poker gambling
legislation came out of the California tribes for a while there. The tribes
control the state’s land gambling enterprises and there was a fear that internet
poker would detract from the land gambling industry revenues. The tribes though
are embracing online poker as a way to diversify their portfolio. Some analysts
in the industry predict that online poker has the ability to generate as much as
250 million a year in additional funds that the government can use for the state
budget. |