PPA Director Says State-By-State Legalization Is Now Preferred

US lobbyists now focus more on a state-by-state solution than a federal one, most likely due to the lack of success of federal online poker legalization bill proposed by Sen. Reid and Kyl, said Poker Player Alliance executive director John Pappas this week. He also gave a piece of his mind, saying: “I think the tables have flipped, where it used to be a 70-30 focus on federal, I think now it will be more like 30-70. The PPA is really looking at the state opportunities for 2013 and making sure we are in a position to impact any bills moving at the state level.” In his opinion, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Iowa are the most likely initiators of online poker regulatory regimes after those of New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada, but he also pointed out that there may be another federal push, although it will be hard to rally Republican support since Senator Jon Kyl retired and the ball would go to a less senior and influential Sen. Dean Heller. “It's going to be really tough sledding to get a bill done in 2013 at the federal level. I think it's a combination of things, one being that there is no clear Republican ring leader aside from Heller, who's been great but having two people from gaming states leading this issue is probably not the combination that's going to equal success,” Pappas opined. He also mentioned the suspense over the recent New Jersey legislation, which seeks to legalise intrastate online gambling but still awaits the signature of governor Chris Christie, who has until February 3 to sign it into state law. About it, he said: “The most important thing right now is New Jersey and getting that bill signed by the governor. It's somewhat frustrating that we don't have a clear signal on which way it's going to go. From the grassroots side, we've been pounding his office on a daily basis the last few weeks urging him to sign the bill.” He also noted that the PPA will now turn to California: “The big crown jewel of all of this is California, so I think a lot of emphasis will be made on doing serious grassroots [work] in California to demonstrate to lawmakers there that there is a voter appeal to these types of proposals. “One thing that has always hurt the chances in California is infighting between the tribes. Unfortunately, we don't have much control over how that plays out, but I've heard from a number of sources that a lot of the tribal dysfunction has been resolved and that many of those once opposed should now be on board. That should clear a path I think for California to be a real leader of this in 2013,” he said. Another one of the PPA's future goals, according to Pappas, us to start identifying potential states where legislation hasn't been pursued in the past but could be in the future. “We certainly could mimic some of the things we've done at the federal level in terms of fly-ins, paid advertisements, letters to the editor, op-eds and media placements in a variety of papers throughout the states from a poker players perspective,” Pappas said. “There are a number of ways to ramp up the grassroots and activity, and we're considering all of those.”