Online gambling has been a heated topic with the attempts by the certain legislators to introduce bills to ban it. There are different opinions on the legalization with those opposing it such as the land casino owners and others supporting it. Some States have legalized online gambling such as Nevada and Delaware while others have legalization bills in the House such as California. Below are the latest developments on Georgia and California.

Georgia against ban on online gambling

Georgia is against the proposed bills that are seeking to resurrect the Wire Act and ban online gambling. The bills, which have been launched by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, and the Representative of Utah, Jason Chaffetz have been linked to the land casino mogul Sheldon Adelson who is against online gambling.

Georgia Lottery Corporation is against the ban and it has produced a fact sheet that shows the effect the ban would have on its internet sales. The corporation has warned that if the congress approves the bills, it would have to shut down.

The sale of online tickets by the lottery began in November 2012 making it among the first lotteries to sell on the internet. The online casinos have been a success generating over $6.6 million in the last year. About $2 million of the revenues have been sent to HOPE Scholarship and pre-kindergarten programs.

According to the officials of the Lottery, if the ban succeeds, it would affect electronic payment of prizes and conducting of second chance draws using the internet. The lottery Chief Executive Debbie Alford wrote a letter to the Congressional House of Assembly senior lawmaker slamming the bills.

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Alford claimed the ban would end a channel that is critical to the success of the Lottery and its ability to raise revenues for education. She continued to write that the lottery needs the innovative and effective methods of improving revenues in order to cater for the rising costs of provision of education. Online sales of lotteries provided this avenue, which is vital to the Lottery.

The officials estimated a loss of $39 million on programs that are funded by the lottery if the proposed legislation succeeds. This can be translated into about HOPE 7000 scholarships or pre-K participants of 11,000.

Internet Poker legalization in California

It is not all gone for the legalization of online poker in California. This is because Reggie Jones-Sawyer, the California Assemblyman has plans for the intrastate legalization bill that he withdrew. The legislator has issued a statement for his decision and which also outlines future plans.

According to the statement, Jones Sawyer says he will be back in the coming session and will renew his attempt of the legalization bill. He also said that the withdrawal of this year’s bill is was due to lack of enough time by Department of Justice & the California Gaming Commission to review the language of the bill and to make recommendations.

The next attempt will involve continuous dialogue with the interested parties to agree on changes for the quick passage of the bill. Jones-Sawyer has said that he will seek for agreement by the competing interests specifically on who to be licensed or not.