NY Online Poker Killed In Committees Again
As of June 15th, New York’s Assembly has left AB 5250, their version of SB 3898, in the Codes, Ways and Means, and Rules Committee. According to state laws in New York, a bill has to wait at least three days after clearing its committees before it can be brought to the Assembly floor for a vote. As New York’s Legislative Session is scheduled to end on June 21st, it looks like the clock has all but run out on any chance for online poker in New York in 2017.
This is the second time that New York’s state Senate has passed a piece of legislation that would legalize, regulate, and tax online poker in the state, and the second time that the Assembly has let it die in committees.
The bill was first introduced, this year at least, on January 27th, 2017 in the Senate. It was referred to the Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee where it was deliberated before passing by a vote of 11-0. The Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee then referred the bill to the Finance Committee, where it again was deliberated and amended and then passed by a vote of 27-9 on May 9th.
The bill was then introduced on the floor and reported the requisite three times before being voted on during the Third Reading on June 5th. It was amended on third reading and then passed by the Senate on June 13th, by a vote of 58-9. The bill was then given to the Assembly, where it has remained in committees.
With just one day left in the legislative session, the bill is all but dead. These actions almost exactly mirror what happened in 2016, when it went through a similar process before being passed by an overwhelming majority of senators. It was then sent over to the Assembly where it subsequently was killed in Committees.
This time around, though, there was some progress that proponents of legal online poker should be happy about – the bill was able to make it past its first Assembly committee, a hurdle it tripped over in the previous year. The Assembly version of SB 3898, AB 5250, was first delivered to the Racing and Wagering Committee, where it passed 10-1 on June 15th.
Many legislators believed that it might actually stand a chance of going to a vote after the swift actions of the first committee. AB 5250 was reported to the second and final committee (Codes, Ways and Means, and Rules) it needed to pass before it could be taken to the Assembly for a vote.
That’s where the bill was snagged. In a closed meeting on June 15th, Assembly Leader Carl Heastie, who previously had supported the bill, voiced concerns over its constitutionality. Other Assembly members then voiced their own concerns over the toughness of the bill on illegitimate poker sites. Heastie withdrew his support of the bill, which proved to be the death blow to AB 5250. It has remained untouched by the committee since that time.
While some faithful betting enthusiasts were still hopeful at the end of last week, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow all but snuffed out that hope when he addressed the media recently. “There was some opposition; we’ll pick it up next year more than likely.” Pretlow sponsored the Assembly’s version of the online poker bill. NewYorkGamblingSites.com is hoping that third time’s the charm for online poker in New York.
