Illegal online gambling is an estimated $30-billion dollar business worldwide. Now, lawmakers in cash-strapped Calif. want to legalize games, such as online poker, to get a piece of that pie and they could do it this year.

"The issue isn't should people bet online. It's happening already," said Democratic Senator Lou Correa of Anaheim. He has a bill to make online poker legal in California.

Correa said nationwide, six out of every 10 online gamblers are from California and that legalizing online poker could net $250-million dollars in taxes immediately.

"To me, $250-million dollars can hire a lot of teachers for our kids," Correa said.

Nevada is far ahead of California. The state has fast tracked efforts to legalize online gambling after the U.S. Department of Justice ruled selling lottery tickets online was legal. Some states view this as opening the door to other types of online gambling.

"It's pretty foggy. It's clear as mud," said Louis Castle, Shuffle Master Chief Strategy Officer.

Castle is a computer gaming pioneer who recently worked for Zynga, a powerhouse social gaming company that is planning to join the online gambling field. He now works for Las Vegas based Shuffle Master, a maker of unique and patented poker games gearing up to provide those games and security for new online gambling sites.

"Yeah, it's coming. It's coming in a big way and it's going to come to the United States and the question is how," said Castle

It may seem like casinos would hate the idea of online gambling, and some do, but, major casinos such as the MGM Grand do support online gambling but they want it regulated at the federal level.

Now, states such as Nevada and Calif. are drawing up a patchwork of local rules to allow online gambling only within their borders.

"We don't want to see any of it," said pastor James Butler from the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion. "Pretty soon they'll have an app that will allow you to connect instantly to a casino or a gambling site. Want to lose your home? We have an app for that," Butler said.

Butler also believes online gambling will cost more in social ills than revenue raised for California. He expresses the obvious concern about underage gambling as just one of many potential problems.

"Is there going to be a guarantee that anyone in California who receives social assistance will be banned from those sites? Or will basically the California citizens be subsidizing somebody else's gambling behavior?" said Butler.

Louis Castle believes the security technology, while not fool proof, is mature. "What it really comes down to is, are you doing a really good job of making sure you don't have underage gamblers," Castle said.

"You're out there first, you're able to receive those moneys first," explained Senator Correa.

After years of failed attempts, lawmakers in Sacramento seem ready to take up the question this year.