Online Gambling in the U.S. in 2016: The Battle Isn’t Over

Congress passed its final bills of the year Dec. 9 and adjourned without so much as a hint of consideration for attaching an online gambling ban during the lame-duck session, ending a disappointing 2016 for poker legislation on a positive note. While there was no concrete progress, at least there was no visible damage done.

However, there may have been damage that we just can’t see yet. I’d argue that the legacy of this past year is tied to the next. Bills in California, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan advanced further than they ever had before, but in the first three states things ended in a discouraging manner.

If next year sees bills pass in any of those states, then 2016 marked strong progress on the way to legal and regulated online poker spreading across the country.

Or maybe 2016 is when it all starting to fall apart — when it proved too difficult for states to push online gaming across the line, when Donald Trump was elected president and brought with him anti-gaming Vice President Mike Pence, along with Republican branches of Congress full of lawmakers who got funding from anti-online gambling crusader Sheldon Adelson.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore

The year began with me interjecting that the third year could be the charm in working on expanding internet poker in the United States beyond the 2013 breakthrough of regulation in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.

That didn’t end up being the case, but online poker did get passed by the New York Senate and Pennsylvania House. That is a major accomplishment to get online poker through one full legislative branch in two of the six most populous states in the country.

But it was shocking how unprepared and unwilling their corresponding chambers were to move on the issue. My interview with New York Assemblyman Gary Pretlow in June was one of the most frustrating interviews I’ve ever done.

He said that he was able to pass his daily fantasy sports bill but not online poker because DFS is a game of skill while poker is gambling, and this is the person who introduced the legislation to regulate online poker!

Pennsylvania appeared to be the state closest to passing online gaming when the year began and it seemed on its way to happening when Rep. John Payne got his internet gambling bill attached to a comprehensive gaming expansion package that also included DFS and allowing video gaming terminals in airports and off-track betting parlors. The House passed the bill and the governor worked with both branches to include $100 million from gaming fees in the state budget.

The Senate then put off addressing the bill until after its summer recess. Rep. Payne, who chaired the House Gaming Oversight Committee, told PokerNews he believed the delay was due to concerns over off-track betting parlors and not online gaming, but once the Senate attempted to act on a local casino tax share issue without addressing the gambling expansion, it was clear something more was going on.

The House challenged the Senate to include online gaming and was ignored.

The roadblock in the Senate became clear when a November letter Sen. Robert Tomlinson sent his colleagues came to light. Throughout the push for online gaming in Pennsylvania, many wondered if this was going to go all the way without Adelson making an impact in a state in which he has a casino.

Well, maybe it’s just that Parx Casino has been lukewarm on online gaming operations in his district, but Tomlinson’s uninformed letter parroted many of the false claims that …

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