The following is clipped from Interactive Gaming News:
California is likely to become the first U.S. state to test the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act's intrastate gambling exemption, as a bill to study the legalization of an online poker offering continues to gain momentum in the State Assembly.
AB 2026, introduced in February by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Democrat from Van Nuys, received bi-partisan approval on Wednesday from the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, which oversees all new gaming legislation in California.
Mr. Levine's bill charges the California Gambling Control Commission and the State Department of Justice to jointly perform a study on the feasibility of an intrastate online poker scheme based on exemptions built into the UIGEA. Approval from the committee means Levine can now create the framework for a law to legalize online poker in the Golden State.
At Mr. Levine's request, the Office of Legislative Counsel -- the legal advisor to the state's legislature -- examined the proposal and addressed whether, under federal and state law, the legislature could authorize the operation of Web sites offering online poker.
Last Friday, the Office of Legislative Counsel delivered its opinion on the proposal, saying that it would not violate federal or state laws.
"We were very pleased that the legal analysis was positive," Jim Tabilio, president of the Poker Voters of America, the grassroots organization sponsoring the bill, told Interactive Gaming News.
Mr. Levine told IGN Thursday that based on the favorable legal opinion and his other research, he may be able to bypass the study altogether and begin constructing a bill for intrastate online poker. He said if they were to pursue a study, the process would delay the legalization of intrastate online poker until 2012.
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