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…

Online poker legislation has become a perennial event in California, with efforts stretching back some 10 years. Despite a decade of debate, the state still seems far away from getting a bill across the finish line. But that doesn’t mean lawmakers won’t try. California Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer introduced the state’s latest online poker legislative effort, the Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act, which seeks to legalize and regulate online poker in the Golden State. Jones-Sawyer’s bill (AB 1677) would allow approved tribes and card rooms to offer online poker to anyone over the age of 21 located in the state of…

PokerStars has become the first online gambling operator to obtain a live games licence in the Czech Republic. The Amaya-owned company is expected to utilise the licence to launch a website in the country within the next few days, with Czech-based players able to access services via PokerStars.cz. Punters in the country will be able to access PokerStars’ established online poker games, as well as various internet casino titles such as blackjack and roulette. Online gaming has been legal in the Czech Republic since 2009, but legislation had restricted the market to domestic operators only. More at iGaming Business

New York State Senator John Bonacic has reintroduced his online poker bill that was passed by the Senate last year. The bill, S 3898, was introduced on Jan. 27 and referred to the New York Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. The committee is chaired by Bonacic. The bill is expected to sail through the Senate – it passed by a 53-5 margin in 2016. However, the Assembly will be a different story, as I detailed in this column. S 3898 would legalize online poker in the state of New York by classifying certain forms of poker as games of…

Online poker supporters created the “Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA)” in order to exhort authorities to legalise the sector. The group is gathering the opponents against the latest amendment that prohibits online poker activities in the country. AOPA proposes a complete framework to regulate the sector and bring benefits to the Australian government as well. Australian Online Poker Alliance offers a platform to discuss the issue and promote their petition to the government. The website also informs residents on how to contact their local elected members of the Parliament to express their disagreement with the amendment approved in November 2016….

Times are changing and online poker is back in the spotlight in the United States. Online poker was extremely popular in the USA up until 2006, which is the year the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed into law. Since then, online poker has struggled to attract players and that’s largely because of the lack of processing. Poker rooms have a lot of trouble processing deposits and withdrawals using traditional payment methods, but things are beginning to change. There are more US poker deposit methods available now then at any other time in the past decade. We’ve witnessed…