Two online poker bills were introduced in the California State Legislature on Friday, which probably not coincidentally was the last day of the current session that lawmakers were allowed to submit bills to the Office of Legislative Counsel.

The first isSB 1366, the Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act of 2014, penned by State Senator Lou Correa (pictured). He has been pushing for the legalization of online poker for quite a few years now, most recently last year, when he authored SB 678, the “Authorization and Regulation of Internet Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013.” SB 1366 appears to be exactly the same as SB 678, which was not brought to the Senate floor last year, but was fast-tracked.

Correa’s bill is pretty much what you would expect from a bill whose goal is to regulate and legalize internet poker. Right off the bat, it comments that poker is legal in licensed California card rooms and tribal casinos, but is not legal online. It reads, “The Legislature finds that protection of the interests of both the State and persons within its jurisdiction that play real money games online require the authorization and establishment of a system for regulating internet poker gambling within California.”

Correa explained that the UIGEA included a carve-out for states to implement their own internet gambling regulations and even though none have gone into effect in California, poker players are still playing online, sending money to offshore operators and potentially putting their funds at risk, hence the need to bring it all Stateside.

SB 1366, like SB 678 before it, is an “urgency statute,” meaning that while it must be ratified by two-thirds of the combined legislature, it would go into effect immediately if passed.

The other bill is AB 2291, written by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (pictured). The bill, simply put, “would establish a framework to authorize intrastate internet poker.” The bill establishes 10-year, non-transferable licenses to be issued to qualified operators, who could only offer poker over the internet, not other forms of gambling. Each licensee would be required to pay a one-time $5,000,000 licensing fee, which would be credited against the operator’s quarterly fees of 5% of “gross gaming revenue proceeds.”

One interesting note found in the bill’s digest refers to how the state would handle legalization and regulation of online poker on a Federal level if AB 2291 has already been enacted into law. AB 2291 would forbid the state from opting-into “any Federal internet gambling scheme”and would require California to opt out of such schemes.

If the state decides to join Federal regulation, going against the bill’s rules, licensees would not be required to pay the one-time fee or quarterly fees to the state and the state would have to refund all unused licensing fees. Interstate and global gaming compacts would also be prohibited.

As with SB 1366, AB 2291 is an urgency statute, although regulations would not need to be adopted for 270 days after the bill’s passage.

Although the California poker community is a hotbed for poker in the United States, it has had a lot of trouble trying to get any legislation going. Perhaps the biggest problem is that there are so many stakeholders, including card rooms, racetracks, and Native American tribes, so it has been difficult coming to any agreements about how to satisfy the varying interests that exist.

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.