Tuesday was a day that online poker players were either looking forward to with excitement or simply dreading. It was the day that Massachusetts House Bill 4591, which would expand gambling in the Commonwealth, was to be debated in the state legislature. Part of the bill includes language that would make online gambling, including poker, illegal in Massachusetts. The debate is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.
What had some people up in arms Tuesday, though, was the overwhelming vote against opening up the bill to a public hearing. Representative Jennifer Callahan put forth the proposal, saying, “The public has been forced to sit in the bleachers with an obstructed view of the legislative raceway while special interests get the inside track. We need to put the brakes, at least temporarily, on ramming this bill through the legislative process.”
Callahan gained support from the other side of the aisle, as House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. called the gambling legislation a “huge issue,” important enough to merit public input.
Representative Daniel E. Bosley, added that, if passed, the bill would create “generational change in our economy, the importance of which cannot be overemphasized.” Bosley has long been against gambling expansion.
Despite the support from some of her colleagues and the fact that nobody spoke out against it, Callahan’s proposal for a public hearing was shot down by a decisive 102-30 vote. House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who introduced the bill that has the online poker community in an uproar, has said previously that because gambling bills have been debated for years in Massachusetts, there is no need for additional public hearings.
The main crux of House Bill 4591 is the establishment of two casinos in Massachusetts and 750 slot machines at the four racetracks in the Commonwealth. As one might expect, some are opposed to the expansion of gambling, while others see it as a way to bring in revenue and create jobs. Additionally, there is debate over where the two casinos should be located. Representatives from Western Massachusetts believe one should be built in their part of the state, but a proposal to require one to be built in the “left half” was defeated by a vote of 136-17.
For online poker players, the alarming part of the bill is the following language, which would criminalize internet gambling: “Any person who knowingly transmits or receives a wager of any type by any telecommunication device, including telephone, cellular phone, Internet, local area network, including wireless local networks, or any other similar device or equipment or other medium of communication, or knowingly installs or maintains said device or equipment for the transmission or receipt of wagering information shall be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 years, or by a fine of not more than $25,000, or both such fine or imprisonment.”
As reported Monday on Poker News Daily, both Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Kentucky State Director Rich Muny and Executive Director John Pappas claimed to have received confirmation that the anti-online poker language will either be stricken completely from the bill or amended so as not to include poker. A technical corrections package, which is rumored to eliminate the anti-internet gambling language, passed the House on Tuesday and must now be approved in the Massachusetts State Senate.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for further developments from Massachusetts.