At present, playing legal online poker on a regulated New Jersey site can be a frustrating ordeal. Games do not run round the clock, tournament guarantees are on the low side (and dipping), and low-to-mid stakes No Limit Hold’em games dominate cash game lobbies. But with online poker at the forefront of the legislative conversation in both New York and Pennsylvania, that could change in relatively swift fashion. Admittedly, there are still a lot of pieces that need to fall into place. But should NY/PA pull the trigger, then a liquidity sharing compact between NJ and its neighbors to the…

Just like last year, it appears a bid to legalize New York online poker via the state budget is not in the cards. But that does not mean online poker legislation is dead for 2017. The Senate had included online poker in its version of the state budget. But it had not appeared in the Assembly version. Just last week, Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow told Online Poker Report that online poker was not likely to make the cut in the final joint legislative budget. Online poker faced the same dynamic last year, as the Senate included online poker in its…

New York’s fight to legalize online poker likely won’t face its true make-or-break test until June, according to poker’s prime mover in the state Assembly. New York’s state Senate included online poker language in its budget proposal last week, but the Assembly opted not to include poker in its spending plan. According to Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, the exclusion was due to unidentified powerful figures in the Assembly who remain on the fence regarding online poker’s merits. Pretlow, who introduced an online poker bill in the Assembly in February and who later claimed he didn’t see “too much opposition” to passing…

As we all know, California is the golden snitch that the United States online poker world wants to catch, but also as we all know, there has been attempt after attempt after attempt to get online poker legalized and regulated there, always to no avail. Would New York be an acceptable consolation prize? Well, perhaps not for Californians or poker players in most of the rest of the country, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. According to GamblingCompliance, there will be another push to pass an online poker bill this year. There have been a number of false starts in getting…

The US state of New York is on track to generate more casino tax revenue than Nevada in the current year, according to a new report by the American Gaming Association (AGA). In 2015, New York collected $888.4 million (€803.2 million) in tax revenue, 2.8% more than in the previous year, while Nevada generated $889.1 million, 0.87% up on the previous year. However, according to the AGA, should trends continue, New York will overtake Nevada with this year’s figures and move into third place for collecting tax revenue from casinos within its borders. Pennsylvania is some way out in front,…

The country’s two leading online daily fantasy sports companies are paying out big — in fines to the state. FanDuel and DraftKings on Tuesday agreed to pay $6 million each to settle lawsuits from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleging they engaged in false and deceptive advertising practices. Schneiderman had charged that the companies misled casual and novice players about their chances of winning and the significant advantages professional players have while failing to disclose the dangers of gambling addiction. The companies also agreed to revamp their marketing, including better disclosure of expected winnings and performance. Because of recent financial struggles,…

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Wednesday formally legalizing daily fantasy sports in the Empire State and handing the embattled industry its biggest victory to date. Fantasy operators that were active in New York before Nov. 10, 2015 must receive a temporary permit from the New York Gaming Commission before reopening for business. The process isn’t expected to take long, and FanDuel and DraftKings, the two leading daily fantasy operators, expect to be up and running in New York before the NFL season kicks off in early September, if not sooner. “Daily fantasy sports have proven to be popular…

I enjoy both online poker and daily fantasy sports. Neither is perfect – there are certainly issues with each that I would like fixed (hey sites: call me, my consulting rates are competitive) – but both pastimes are a lot of fun and should be legalized and regulated across the United States. And they both constitute gambling. Thus, it vexes me that DFS, despite being the much less mature industry, has been gaining acceptance from lawmakers at an astronomically faster rate than online poker. Case in point: over the weekend, the New York legislature passed a bill that legalizes and…