August 12, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — In another exclusive story from EGR Magazine, it was reported today that Jim Tabilio, the founder of the Poker Voters of America (PVA) who recently left that group to lobby independently for online gambling regulations, predicts that some of the more populous states will choose to opt out of any new online gambling or Internet poker laws that may pass in the U.S. within the coming years.
Even if bigger states like California, New York, and Texas approve of the new laws, they’ll probably be "forced to use restrictive 90-day opt-out clauses factored into the legislation,” according to the article at EGR. This is because of the large bureaucracies within these states, which rarely work quickly enough to meet the 90-day limits that are written into the legislation of both Barney Frank’s and Robert Menendez’s current online gaming regulatory bills.
“The politicians and regulators I’ve spoken to think 90 days is too short a period to make that decision,” Tabilio told EGR. “If at all unsure, they will say ‘no’ in order to take a longer look. A lot of state legislators are not full time, meaning that not many states could make the decision within 90 days and governors will then automatically opt out.”
Let’s not forget, however, that Tabilio’s career has largely been focused on providing the state of California with its own poker regulatory system. That means he has the inside info on these processes; it also means he may have a specific interest in keeping California's online gambling laws separate from federal regulations. (For example, in one draft of the California online poker regulations, the state would award the license for the entire state to just one company. And a company would likely be willing to offer a large reward to the lobbyist who could score that kind of contract.)
To read the entire article at EGR, click here.