3-Bet: Michigan Seeks to Legalize Online Poker, Sands Casino to be Sold & Australians Fight For Online Poker

3-Bet
  • Profile picture
  • PG News March 5, 2017
  • 3 Minutes Read

Online poker is the focus of this edition of our PokerGuru 3-Bet. The first is about Michigan looking at legalizing online poker with a new bill. The second is about a land-based casino up for sale due to the threat of online poker in Pennsylvania and third is about Australian poker fans uniting to fight the government’s ban on online poker and succeeding.

 

Online Gaming Bill Proposed in Michigan

Michigan became the latest state to propose an online casino bill, after California, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Hawaii did the same. If approved, Michigan will join the likes of Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, which are the only states to have a licensed and regulated online gaming regime.

The state has been looking towards the online market since the past four years, with little success in getting such a bill approved. Michigan already has a land-based market worth $3 billion run by about two dozen tribals and commercial casino operators.

This latest online bill i.e. ‘Lawful Internet Gaming Act,’ has been proposed by Senator Mike Kowall, a Republican who put it into motion last year and has the support of five more members as well. According to the Poker Players association (PPA) the legislation is expected to be heard by the committee some time the coming week.

In its current form, the bill allows only land-based casino operators to apply for online licenses and has reasonable fees of $200,000 the first year and $100,000 subsequent years, as against the upfront fees of $12.5 million by California, $10 million by New York and $8 million by Pennsylvania.

Moreover, the bill makes it mandatory for license holders to offer some form of poker, besides other games and also allows for player pool liquidity with other states.

 

Sands Casino Up For Sale

Meanwhile, in a surprising development, the Las Vegas Sands Casino, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has come up for sale. The brick and mortar casino is owned by land-based gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has been the strongest voice against online poker. Sheldon is said to have pumped in millions from his own pocket to stop online poker being legalized in the US, especially PokerStars.

However, looks like it has all come to naught. The said above casino is now being put up for sale mainly due to the fact that Pennsylvania is soon going to be legalizing online poker, which is expected to deeply cut into the land-based casino’s profits.

Other reasons for the sale are said to be the opening of two new physical casinos in neighboring New York, with Tioga Downs Casino in Nichols, and Rivers Schenectady in Schenectady, N.Y. Both are in the more popular and highly busy state.

Moreover, the 146 security guards at the $800 million Sands, Bethlehem managed to successfully form a union, which is a first for any Sheldon Adelson property and is expected to influence the other 2,400 workers.

In fact, Carl Icahn was unable to re-open the Trump Taj mainly due to issues from its workers union.

 

Australian Supporters Fight to Save Online Poker

Not just the USA, but online poker seems to be gaining ground even Down Under, with the country’s poker supporters forming the Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA) to stop the government from passing a law that will ban it.

The AOPA was mostly formed with help from Joseph Del Duca, who said that the organization had had a successful week, fighting the government. Due to adverse laws, both PokerStars and 888poker have already withdrawn from Australia.

A new law proposed states that all offshore-based poker operators though legitimate, would be barred by the country in an attempt to protect players. However, according to Del Duca, this would in fact have an adverse effect, as it would open up a grey market, allowing dubious operators to run the market.

The AOPA met the government to rectify this situation and Del Duca said, “Given the overwhelming evidence about how there is next to no correlation between online poker and problem gambling and the fact that multiple government and productivity commission reviews have called on the government to license and allow online poker in Australia, there is really no reason as to why a government that stands for freedom of choice would not listen to our calls and allow peer-to-peer online poker services for Australian citizens.

Besides contacting the government, the AOPA has also been pushing the “Keep Online Poker Legal” campaign through social media and the results have already come through. Senator David Leyonhjelm has now brought in an amendment to exclude online poker from the proposed bill.

Del Duca declared the amendment as a “massive victory” and said, “The intention of this bill was never to ban online poker in Australia, and now that we have made our position clear and shown a path to protect poker and keep the intent of the Minister’s bill intact, I am hopeful that Minister Tudge will do the right thing and save the game loved by hundreds of thousands of Australians”.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru