John Pappas, Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance

December capped off a relatively quiet year on the poker legislation front in the US. However, the month itself was fairly eventful. Let’s take a look back at what legislative events happened in December, in case you missed it.

RAWA Hearing Failures

The most significant development at the Federal level in December was a House Oversight Committee hearing entitled “A Casino in Every Smartphone – Law Enforcement Implications.” Organized by Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the hearing could have been a disaster for online poker. Instead, we may have witnessed the end of an anti-iGaming movement on Capitol Hill.

During the hearing, Chaffetz’s Republican and Democratic colleagues lashed out at the state’s rights implications of Restoring America’s Wire Act, or RAWA. The bill, which Chaffetz introduced, decrees that the Wire Act of 1961 applies to all forms of online gambling, including poker, even in the three states that have already legalized it. If passed, it would mean an end to iPoker in the US. Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is the main driver behind the bill.

Rather than a hearing full of fear-mongering like we saw last March, December’s hearing was largely a victory for proponents of online poker. As Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas told PocketFives, “I can’t imagine there is tremendous momentum for RAWA coming out of the hearing, but we know Adelson and the money he has will continue to push the issue. I don’t think we can let our guard down. We have done an outstanding job, not just the PPA, but the industry, of educating lawmakers about the failures of RAWA and I think that was exposed during the hearing.”

Online gambling opponent Jason Chaffetz

At one point during December’s tilt, Chaffetz was seen in a heated sidebar with another lawmaker. Did the entire affair catch him off-guard? Pappas explained, “He just assumed everyone was on his side. I think he was a little stunned to hear the opposition, even from his own party, saying it doesn’t make sense on Tenth Amendment grounds and logical grounds. There wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for it.”

Close, But No Cigar in Pennsylvania

While we may have witnessed the death of RAWA at the Federal level in December, especially given that 2016 is a Presidential election year, there were some developments on the state level last month. Despite much optimism, efforts to regulate internet poker in Pennsylvaniafell short in December. There, a bill from Representative John Payne, HB 649, was withdrawn for the remainder of 2015 last month.

Pennsylvania State Representative John Payne

Pappas pointed out, “Pennsylvania is still very much a live wire. The budget negotiations are ongoing and the failure of the most recent effort is probably good for iPoker. We are going to be watching that closely. They’re going to be starting on the new budget in the first two weeks of the New Year.”

In Pennsylvania, the PPA Executive Director could see a scenario where the state’s budget includes an earmark for revenue from expanded online gambling, but no authorizing legislation like HB 649. Then, it’ll be up to lawmakers to decide what types of online gaming are permitted and what companies can service the market.

HB 649 would have allowed the state’s 12 brick-and-mortar casinos to partner with an online gaming operator to offer online poker and online casino games to those inside Pennsylvania.

California Gains Momentum

Another state where we could see action in 2016 is California, the holy grail of online poker markets in the US due to its size. California lawmakers have been closely monitoring revenue results from New Jersey, which has regulated internet gambling, and have a keen eye on PokerStars’ impending launch in the Garden State, according to an ABC San Diego story and others in recent weeks.

“California is still very much a hope,” Pappas told us. “It has been a struggle with competing factions, but we got close last year to some agreements. One of the biggest stumbling blocks has been PokerStars and the bad actor provisions. However, PokerStars being licensed in New Jersey means that issue in California could come off the table. That would only leave the issue of how you deal with the racetracks. I think there’s a sincere effort to include them via a license or revenue share. If that works out, California could happen relatively quickly.”

First-year California online poker revenue projections

In October, PokerStars received a transactional waiver allowing it to operate in New Jersey. No launch date has been given, but Pappas called the development “positive,” saying that PokerStars not being considered a “bad actor,” at least in New Jersey, means Amaya, Caesars, and MGMcould all ultimately work towards the same goal.

Pappas noted that the trio has “a powerful amount of resources to put behind a lobbying effort.” Caesars and MGM have largely been pro-iPoker, while Las Vegas Sands and Wynn have not.

In late December, it was announced that the California Assembly could tackle online poker as early as this week, according to Online Poker Report.

Four-Year Wire Act Anniversary

Finally, it has been four years since the US Department of Justice issued a memo saying that the Wire Act only applies to online sports betting, ushering in regulated intrastate online gambling in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. The opinion, which was released two days before Christmas in 2011 in response to inquiries from the New York and Illinois lotteries, has been a hot-button topic for opponents like Chaffetz.

“It’s not often that a gaming policy is enacted in a single legislative session,” Pappas said of the speed at which US regulation at the state level has proceeded since 2011. “It usually takes multiple legislative sessions for gaming policy to become law. We’re hopeful that 2016 is better than 2015 and better than the previous year. Getting bills passed is the ultimate goal, but we have to build to that goal first.”