New York inches ever closer to regulated online poker

New York’s latest online poker bill breezed through a state Senate committee vote on Tuesday but an uncertain future awaits in the state Assembly.

On Tuesday, the New York Senate Finance Committee voted to send the S-3898 online poker bill introduced earlier this year by Sen. John Bonacic to the Senate floor for debate and a possible vote. Five Committee members voted against the bill, but since no debate preceded the vote, the reason behind their opposition can only be guessed at.

The Committee’s vote was largely expected, as the full Senate approved Bonacic’s 2016 online poker effort by a wide margin. But the Assembly proved a far tougher nut to crack, and Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow declined to even bring the bill up for discussion last year.

In February, Pretlow suggested that a sufficient shift in opinion had taken place since last summer and thus the Assembly was more likely to welcome a poker vote in 2017. However, a Tuesday afternoon Tweet-storm from New York journalist Andrew Whitman (@WhitmanAndrew) suggested resistance against online poker might be stiffening in the Assembly.