New York Senate approves online poker bill (again)

For the second year in a row, New York’s state Senate has voted in favor of allowing online poker within state borders, but it’s anyone’s guess whether or not the state Assembly will follow suit.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 54-8 in favor of Sen. John Bonacic’s S-3898 online poker bill, which would allow a maximum 11 licensees to partner with online technology vendors to offer regulated poker games to individuals over 21 years of age within state borders.

Despite some senatorial grandstanding for the cameras immediately preceding the vote, Tuesday’s result was more or less a foregone conclusion. The margin of victory was roughly equivalent to the 53-5 score that Bonacic’s 2016 online poker bill received in the Senate nearly one year ago to the day.

The action now shifts to the Assembly, which declined to even bring Bonacic’s 2016 effort up for a vote. Key Assembly pol J. Gary Pretlow has offered decidedly mixed messages on what fate Bonacic’s latest effort might face when it arrives on his doorstep, alternately suggesting that the reception would be more positive than in 2016 and that “serious objections” remained about the wisdom of treating New York adults like adults.