California’s online poker stakeholders remembered their lines this week, reacting exactly as one would expect them to following this week’s proposed amendments to the state’s latest online poker bill.

Seriously, we’re telling you upfront that this is not one of those ‘up is down, black is white’ stories. If you’re at all familiar with California’s online poker story to date, you need go no further. But if you truly have two or three minutes to spare, read on, Macduff…

The most notable tweak to Assemblyman Adam Gray’s AB 2863 bill was the new definition of a ‘bad actor’, i.e. a person or company that would be deemed unsuitable to participate in the state’s regulated online poker market.

Under Gray’s amended bill, the doors to California’s poker market would be barred to any company that took wagers from US citizens after Dec. 31, 2011. That‘s five years later that most other bills of this sort, and over eight months after online poker colossus PokerStars exited the market.