California held its first ever committee vote on online poker legislation and the vote was unanimously in favor.

The vote didn’t legalize anything, but merely ensured that Assemblyman Adam Gray’s AB 431 ‘shell’ bill would be discussed in greater detail at future hearings. Unlike the state’s other online poker bills, AB 431 wasn’t designated as an ‘urgency’ measure, leaving it facing an early death if it didn’t receive Committee approval by May 1, the deadline for bills to be considered in the current legislative session.

Prior to Monday’s hearing of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee – of which Gray is chairman – Gray filed amendments to the bill. The substance of these amendments remains a mystery but they were apparently sufficient to convince representatives of the Pechanga-led tribal coalition to shift their position from ‘opposed’ to ‘neutral’.

However, Pechanga chairman Mark Macarro reiterated the coalition’s opposition to the state’s racetracks being allowed to participate in the online poker marketplace. The coalition continues to insist that since the tracks aren’t currently licensed to offer poker, allowing them to do so online would represent an expansion of gambling that would contradict the expressed wishes of state voters and make a mockery of state-tribal gaming compacts.