- The potential authorization of New York online poker will be decided quickly.
- Budget battles in the state for the 2013-14 fiscal year face an April 1st legislative deadline.
- A failure for online poker to be included would likely push the matter off legislators’ calendars until early 2014.
A New York Senate budget proposal championed by the state’s Senate Majority Coalition includes language calling for the introduction of state-authorized online poker in New York.
The 2013-2014 budget proposal, co-signed by New York Senate leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos, includes the following: “The Senate supports authorizing and regulating internet gaming for games of skill, including poker, to reflect recent changes in the classification of these games.”
The online poker revenue could add as much as $100 million annually to state coffers, and comes as the state’s Senate also battles with NY Governor Andrew Cuomo over the authorization and placement of between three and seven possible new land-based casinos within New York State.
According to a Newsday report on the budget proposal, aides for Klein and Skelos are relying “on a state court ruling that determined poker is considered a 'game of skill’ and not a legally prohibited 'game of chance.’ However, that assertion appears to refer to the EDNY judgment in the DiCristina case presided over by Judge Jack Weinstein, which is a federal case, not a state one.
