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The clock is ticking for Michigan’s lame-duck governor to sign the state’s recently approved real-money online casino and poker legislation, H 4926.
Gov. Rick Snyder, who is leaving office at the start of 2019, won’t be able to sign the measure into law after Dec. 31. If he fails to sign, the bill would die and not become law. The stakes were high prior to the Michigan Senate’s last-minute passage last week as the session came to a close. The bill can’t carry over into 2019, which means that, if the governor rejects it, the legislation would need to restart in a legislative committee and travel the long, windy political road in Lansing all over again.
There is no indication that Snyder is contemplating either a veto or letting the measure expire. Both he and Michigan Rep. Brandt Iden, who sponsored the legislation, are Republicans. For what it’s worth, Iden’s Twitter photo is of himself and Snyder.
‘Lame duck for the ages’
The passage of Michigan’s online poker legislation came during one of the “most prolific” lame-duck sessions in state history, as Bridge Magazine put it. The Internet Gaming Act was one of more than 300 pieces of legislation that the Senate voted on in a roughly two-week time frame.
Michigan’s political environment was contentious during the lame-duck session, as Republican control of the state’s branches of government was coming to a close after an eight-year run. Michigan considered online gaming for several years before the legislation was finally successful, but it wasn’t partisan politics that held it back.
Fortunately for online gaming, it’s a far less controversial issue than it has been in the past, as more states are considering some form of it than ever before. Michigan was faced with the prospect of missing out on the lucrative opportunity to modernize its casino industry, which consists of three Detroit commercial casinos and two dozen tribal properties sprinkled around the state.
The clock is ticking for Michigan’s lame-duck governor to sign the state’s recently approved real-money online casino and poker legislation, H 4926.
Gov. Rick Snyder, who is leaving office at the start of 2019, won’t be able to sign the measure into law after Dec. 31. If he fails to sign, the bill would die and not become law. The stakes were high prior to the Michigan Senate’s last-minute passage last week as the session came to a close. The bill can’t carry over into 2019, which means that, if the governor rejects it, the legislation would need to restart in a legislative committee and travel the long, windy political road in Lansing all over again.
There is no indication that Snyder is contemplating either a veto or letting the measure expire. Both he and Michigan Rep. Brandt Iden, who sponsored the legislation, are Republicans. For what it’s worth, Iden’s Twitter photo is of himself and Snyder.
‘Lame duck for the ages’
The passage of Michigan’s online poker legislation came during one of the “most prolific” lame-duck sessions in state history, as Bridge Magazine put it. The Internet Gaming Act was one of more than 300 pieces of legislation that the Senate voted on in a roughly two-week time frame.
Michigan’s political environment was contentious during the lame-duck session, as Republican control of the state’s branches of government was coming to a close after an eight-year run. Michigan considered online gaming for several years before the legislation was finally successful, but it wasn’t partisan politics that held it back.
Fortunately for online gaming, it’s a far less controversial issue than it has been in the past, as more states are considering some form of it than ever before. Michigan was faced with the prospect of missing out on the lucrative opportunity to modernize its casino industry, which consists of three Detroit commercial casinos and two dozen tribal properties sprinkled around the state.
