NY Law to block access to poker sites.

[rayrns]

This is a message I just received from the Poker Players Alliance. It will mean the end of online poker for all New Yorkers.
Ray

Poker needs your help! On Tuesday, March 11th the New York State Senate Codes Committee approved legislation (S.66) which will force Internet Service Providers like AOL, Google and MSN to block their customers from accessing lawful Internet poker Web sites and other gaming on the Internet. This Bill can be voted on by the full State Senate as early as Monday, March 17th!

This is a direct assault by the New York State Senate to censure your rights to access the Internet to play poker or similar games in the comfort and security of your own home.

Please call Sen. George H. Winner, Jr. at (518) 455-2091 if you haven't already.

Tell them:

I am voter in your district and a poker player
I strongly oppose S.66 because it restricts the free flow of information and services over the Internet
New York should not follow the example of repressive countries that censor the activities of their citizens on the Internet.
Please vote NO on S.66
With your help we can stop this outrageous bill. Please call your Senator TODAY!

After your call, tell us how it went by clicking here.

Proud to Play Poker,
Alfonse D'Amato, Chairman
Poker Players Alliance

[janeg]

Did a quick google and found a paper from the NY Bar which strongly disapproves the bill.

Also found bill S00066, it's moved pretty quick

[Piscivorous]

You'd think that D'Amato would have enough political allies left in NY to squash this. Wonder what the media thinks?

[ciaran]

Maybe Wynton will weigh in on this, but I'm not sure how Google can be construed as an ISP with regards to this bill, and there have to interstate commerce/net neutrality issues here with an ISP like AOL.

That said, the most interesting part of this bill appears to be in Section 7. As I read it, it makes the sale of any personal computer in the state of New York a crime under this statute (don't know if the original statute that this is apparently amending makes that a felony or misdemeanor). That should work well.

[Wynton]

I'm aware of this legislation, but have not had an opportunity to look closely and offer any opinion about its likelihood of passage.

Mostly, I've just had an initial gut reaction of revulsion.

[Bugsbunny]

The Senate is Republican controlled. The Assembly (where it died once) is Democratic. Party warfare is rampant in Albany so I think the chances for passage are ultimately small - especially when you add in the NYC Bar opposition and D'Amato probably having the ear of both Assembly leaders and the Governor. Small is not impossible though.

The proposed changes to the law are small, but significant (eg, not that much verbiage is involved). Here's the entirety (the parts in RED are the new parts):

___________

Introduced by Sens. PADAVAN, RATH, VOLKER -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes

AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to including gambling over
the internet within provisions of law relating to gambling offenses

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
bly, do enact as follows:

1 Section 1. Subdivisions 4, 5 and 7 of section 225.00 of the penal law
2 are amended to read as follows:
3 4. "Advance gambling activity." A person "advances gambling activity"
4 when, acting other than as a player, he engages in conduct which mate-
5 rially aids any form of gambling activity. Such conduct includes but is
6 not limited to conduct directed toward the creation or establishment of
7 the particular game, contest, scheme, device or activity involved,
8 toward the acquisition or maintenance of premises, paraphernalia, equip-
9 ment or apparatus therefor, toward the solicitation or inducement of
10 persons to participate therein, toward the actual conduct of the playing
11 phases thereof, toward the public endorsement thereof, toward the
12 arrangement of any of its financial or recording phases, or toward any
13 other phase of its operation, and including gambling over the internet.
14 "Internet" means the myriad of computer and telecommunications facili-
15 ties, including equipment and operating software, which comprise the
16 interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the trans-
17 mission control protocol/internet protocol, or any predecessor or
18 successor protocols to such protocol, to communicate information of all
19 kinds by wire or radio. One advances gambling activity when, having
20 substantial proprietary or other authoritative control over premises
21 being used with his knowledge for purposes of gambling activity, he
22 permits such to occur or continue or makes no effort to prevent its
23 occurrence or continuation.


S. 66 2

1 5. "Profit from gambling activity." A person "profits from gambling
2 activity" when, other than as a player, he accepts or receives money or
3 other property pursuant to an agreement or understanding with any person
4 whereby he participates or is to participate in the proceeds of gambling
5 activity, including but not limited to an agreement or understanding to
6 act as an internet service provider. "Internet service provider" means
7 any information service, system, or access software provider that
8 provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer
9 server, including specifically a service or system that provides access
10 to the Internet.
11 7. "Gambling device" means any device, machine, paraphernalia or
12 equipment which is used or usable in the playing phases of any gambling
13 activity, whether such activity consists of gambling between persons or
14 gambling by a person involving the playing of a machine, including but
15 not limited to a computer. Notwithstanding the foregoing, lottery tick-
16 ets, policy slips and other items used in the playing phases of lottery
17 and policy schemes are not gambling devices.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
19 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.