Lesniak targeting Jan. 6 for passage of New Jersey's online gambling bill

TRENTON, N.J. -- While the future of online poker legislation at the federal level is uncertain at best, online gambling legislation in New Jersey is steaming toward a January vote in the New Jersey Assembly. If Sen. Raymond Lesniak's Internet gambling bill is approved by the Assembly in January, then it will go to Gov. Chris Christie's desk for approval.

Last week, the Assembly's Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee approved the Lesniak bill on a 5-0 vote.

"The bill must go to the Assembly Budget Committee," Lesniak told Casino City Monday. "And the idea is to have final passage on January 6 when the entire Assembly would vote on it and the Senate would concur and then it would go to the governor."

Lesniak says the bill is headed to the Budget Committee because it includes a taxation component.

"It's our rules. If it has a tax in there, it goes there," Lesniak said. "There was always a tax on Internet gaming, just like there is on any gaming, so therefore it always had to go through the Budget Committee process."

Besides tax structure, the only other major revision the Assembly's Gaming Committee made to Lesniak's bill was to add a provision preventing New Jersey's online casinos from accepting players from outside the United States. The legislation already prevented Americans not living in New Jersey from gambling online.