New York To Join The Poker Party

The game of online poker in the United States hangs in the balance in certain ways based on what New York State decides to do. People in the United States have been playing online poker legal or otherwise since the Internet first came around basically, but many would like to play in a regulated system under which they did not have to worry about their actions being deemed illegal. 

A state-sanctioned system is what four U.S. states now have. These are Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Nevada. Now, New York might decide to join in the action in 2018. They could clear a major hurdle to normalizing online poker in the rest of the country if they decide to join up. 

New York is such a large and economically important state that it is going to be a major deal to the poker community if the state does become the fifth state to legalize online poker. It will get even better if New York pairs up with the other states that have legalized online poker to create an interstate online poker pact. That would enable players from all five states, and any who might join up later to participate in poker contests with one another. 

A Republican lawmaker has introduced the online poker bill in the New York state legislature every year since 2014. He brings it to the attention of the lawmakers and tries to keep pushing for the issue. It is interesting that the lawmaker is a Republican, because that is not usually the party associated with wanting to have online poker legalized. 

The last two years the state Senate has been able to get the bill passed through. However, it has always stalled out in the House. It seems likely that it will once again pass in the Senate this year. If the number of amendments can be kept to a minimum this time around, then perhaps the bill will actually get signed into law. There is that possibility as the state does not want to fall behind others that are vying for those same gambling dollars.