The Gambling Control / California Intrastate Online Poker Act, introduced last month by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, was passed Wednesday by the state’s Assembly Governmental Organization Committee (AGOC). The next step through the process of bringing the bill to an eventual vote will be to get it passed by the Assembly Appropriates Committee.

Levine’s bill essentially calls for the California State Gambling Control Commission to study, together with the Department of Justice, the clause within the UIGEA that allows individual states to legalize and regulate intrastate online gambling. The study needs to explore whether online gambling sites that operate within California, and serve only the Californian public, will be operating illegally under current federal laws.