In a new attempt to legalise online poker, New York State Representative J. Gary Pretlow has filed a bill to reclassify Texas Hold’em and Omaha poker games as games of skill. If they were declared as such, instead of games of chance, it would make them legal across the state of New York.
HB1380 bill is suggested as a part of the process to amend gambling laws in New York in 2023. It declares that “courts have found that where a contest pits the skill levels of the players against each other, those games are games of skill and not games of chance”, pointing out that these two types of poker games fit right into the category.
What Would the Legislation Bring?
The bill also points out that with the use of the Internet, players can access online games illegally in the state of New York and that HB1380 would bring “regulatory oversight to safeguard the integrity of the games and participants”.
If the bill comes into power, New York State Gaming Commission will have regulatory oversight of online poker games 180 days after the bill becomes law. Eleven licences would become available to companies holding class III gaming licences and VLT licences.
The bill also imposes a one-time fee of $10m that licence-holders can pay in instalments throughout a maximum of 60 months. The bill also proposes a 15% tax rate on all gross gaming revenue made by online poker operators, hence funding the New York state lottery fund.
Historical Attempts to Legalise Online Poker
HB1380 is not the first attempt at legalising online poker in the state of New York. Senator Joseph Addabbo made a similar proposition in January 2019, also looking to provide 11 licences for Class III gaming licensees and VLT-certified organisations.
However, the proposed bill failed to pass the house, and the same happened to Addabbo’s bill from 2021, in which he attempted to legalise online casinos and poker.
Pretlow could feel more optimistic about passing the bill than his predecessor Addabbo, if we consider the success of online sports betting that generated record taxes in the past year, within the first year of being legalised.
Online sports betting operators have been paying 51% tax on GGR so far, and lawmakers are looking to amend the laws and lower the tax rates to either 50% or 25%, conditional upon specific requirements companies should meet.
