With the state of California being under severe financial problems, a debate has been doing the rounds on whether online gambling should be legalized or not. In fact, even the state legislature has been discussing plans to make online gambling in California legal for the past two years.
The results of a Field Poll released in September show the growing support for the legalization of Internet poker. A major chunk of Californian voters, particularly those less than 40 years of age, support the proposal to tax online poker. When the opinion of all age groups is taken into account, the percentage of voters in support of the idea stands at 53, while those against it stands at 41. However, the notable thing is the support among voters aged less than 40 years who comprise 73 percent of the proponents to the proposal of taxing online poker.
While debating on the pros and cons of such a move, several California lawmakers, who are the proponents, opine that the state’s budget deficit of $25 billion can be brought down with the potential revenue generated by such a move. The tremendous voter support for online poker, where two in three California voters are in favor of taxing and regulating online poker, has given them a big boost. What’s more, since the estimated number of Californians playing online poker stands at a whopping 489,000, California could reap $1 billion in taxes and fees over a period of 10 years with legalized online poker on Kayabola.
Despite the rosy picture painted by proponents of taxing online poker, opponents of the move are apprehensive. They fear that in its quest to make money, the state may end up encouraging players to gamble too much and end into poorhouses. Another point is the confusion likely to stem up from competing legislations to make online poker legal. While some lawmakers are in favor of letting existing poker rooms seek an indefinite number of online poker licenses, some others are in favor of limiting the licenses, which they want to be awarded through bidding. Keeping the profits in California and dealing with a preliminary surge of large amounts of money due to frenzied bidding by potential operators are other factors that need to be chalked out before legalizing internet poker. Keeping an eye on the cash prizes on offer is yet another aspect, which should be weighed to ensure that the operators don’t dupe the players.
So, amidst such opposing views, it remains to be seen if online poker is legalized in California and how it benefits poker players by creating competition among operators if the proposal really becomes a law.
Web-based wagering is such wagering, which is made out of over the web. The market is changed for the electronic wagering age of about $40 billion reliably. It is legal in a lot of countries; notwithstanding, a couple of nations limit or block list online wagering.
