Mississippi and Washington could not see online poker regulated

Both US states, Mississippi and Washington, seemed to be interested in getting on board but it seems now that, online poker regulation is more of a dream that will never come true. The two states have discarded the idea of setting legislation to regulate online poker. The bills introduced this week in Mississippi and Washington state are not likely to pass this year’s lawmaking assembly; the bills by both state representatives, Bobby Moak from Mississippi and Sherry Appleton from Washington, are out of game already. Bobby Moak has tried to introduce online poker bills for four years in a row with no success. State Representative Bobby Moak has made an effort to establish online poker legislation in the best possible way; the bill would prevent consumers from playing at offshore online gambling sites by applying the most secure measures. This is all based on the studies that Mississippi Gaming Commissioner, Allen Godfrey, brought to the table last year to understand better the internet gambling market, a study that has not been made public yet. Mississippi Gaming Commission has closely followed the gaming US states where online regulations are already working. Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey, even when they haven’t reached the expectations on revenues, have brought up the fact that online gambling regulated markets have been able to control the two biggest issues for this market: geo-location and fraud.

Washington State has definitively abandoned any possibility to legalize online gambling. The state has too many relationships with tribal gambling establishments that, making of playing online poker a felony offense. House Bill 1114, sponsored by state’s representative Sherry Appleton and authored by player advocate Curtis Woodard, has tried to introduce some common sense into the political field, with no success. Curtis Woodard has publicized an article where Washington’s representative Appleton confirms that the House Bill 1114 is out of consideration: “The bill did not get the support that I had originally hoped for. Consequently we will not be moving forward with it this session.”