New York deals itself in on i-poker

A bill to legalize Internet poker in New York State advanced unanimously out of the state Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming & Wagering. That’s the easy part. It now goes to the Finance Committee, where tougher questions may be asked. However, the bill has a couple of things going. For one, Pennsylvania‘s serious flirtation with i-gaming lends a certain urgency to the issue. For another, revenue projections for online poker are pegged at $120 million, a more realistic number than the pie-in-the-sky projections that dazzled other states into legalizing it. However, New York is still months — if not years — from opening its next round of terrestrial casino, so legislators may decide the Internet poker is premature until brick-and-mortar options have been exhausted.