Twenty-five card rooms in California have written a letter to key lawmakers urging that online poker be legalized at the same time that a gaming tribe has decided not to wait for legalization before offering the game.
Twenty-five of California’s 88 card rooms, led by the California Grand Casino, have sent a letter supporting online poker within the state to two key Golden State lawmakers who are overseeing hearings, including Senator Lou Correa and Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
The card clubs also lent their support to a “bad actor” clause that would apply to any online operator who continued allow U.S. players to gamble after the federal government implemented UIGEA in 2006.
The “bad actor” clause would prevent PokerStars, which has partnered with a consortium of the Morongo Casino and several large card clubs, including Commerce, the Bike and Hawaiian Gardens, from participating. However, 13 gaming tribes in the state support the “bad actor” clause.
The letter asserts, “It is essential that card rooms be able to participate in internet poker in a meaningful way to protect our existing poker business, jobs and tax base.”
No one expects any legislation to pass before the end of August (when the current session ends) and so far no hearings have been scheduled as yet.
Around the same time that the card clubs sent their letter, the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel announced that it was going to offer online poker, despite the fact that the legislature has not acted. The tribe launched PrivateTable.com, which accepts money and is limited to California residents.
Tribal Commission Chairman David Vialpando claims that the tribe can offer online gaming because it is a Class II game. “Tribes have the exclusive regulatory authority with regard to the conduct of class two games and poker is a class two game,” he said last week. “No different than the regulatory structure and rules that we’ve abided by and have been in place in brick and mortar casinos since 1999 in California.”
The tribe’s attorney Martin Owens argues that the tribe’s right to offer the games is up in the air because the legislature has neglected to address it. Congress has also fallen down on the job, he asserts. “So along comes the Internet, and it’s opened up the jurisdiction question,” he told Casino City. “If there’s ever been an elephant in the room, it’s the jurisdiction question. Where does the bet take place and why?”
Because all of the physical aspects of the game occur on the reservation, the tribe has the right to offer the games online, he claims.
According to Owens, because the law is silent the tribe has the right to offer the games. What’s more, he sees no reason why all 110 tribes in the state should be able to offer online poker.
“Now you add in half-a-dozen race tracks, county fairs and the 90-odd municipal card rooms and all of sudden you have more than 150 potential claimants for a license out here,” he added. “Now you have people trying to exclude each other. There are some really deep-seated rivalries. That’s what’s kept internet gaming from moving forward at the state level. There are too many people whose main interest is making sure someone else doesn’t get a chance.”
The Santa Ysabel tribe used to operate a small casino, but it was forced to shut it down when the courts ruled that it could not declare bankruptcy in order to avoid paying several million dollars that the casino owned the County of San Diego.
California has over 38 million people, and if it ever legalizes online poker it could open the floodgates nationally. There have been several attempts to craft acceptable bills in the last seven years. All failed because gaming tribes could not agree on the approach.
Richard Schuetz, who directs the California Gambling Control Commission, has called on Congress to draft a law that covers all forms of gambling, to avoid having many regulations across state lines for consumers to have to deal with.
He points out that the European Union was forced to address this issue to bring the various regulations into some kind of harmony.
