California’s gaming tribes and its card rooms are at swords’ point over a recently revised rule by the state of California that, according to card rooms, goes too far, and according to tribes doesn’t go far enough.
At issue is a rule, part of the state constitution, that doesn’t allow card clubs to offer banked card games, but which for about a decade has been relaxed by an interpretation that allows players to pass the deal to a designated dealer, a casino employee, instead of rotating the deal and bank.
This infuriates tribes, who say that it costs them real money because players are less likely to play at a tribal casino when the card room doesn’t enforce this rule that slows down play.
Card rooms claim that if they are required to go back to the old interpretation that they face losing millions, maybe even extinction.
That would be a tough break, admits the tribes, but they are pushing for it nonetheless.
According to former Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, “it’s about money. That’s what it all boils down to.“ He added, “The money is in Vegas-style gaming. The closer you can get to that without crossing the line, the more money you are going to make.”
More than 70 card clubs currently allow non-banked games. State law says that the player-dealer position must be “continuously and systematically rotated amongst each of the participants during the play of the game.”
In June the Bureau of Gambling Control told card clubs that it was changing the rules so that players must be offered the bank position every two hands.
The delay imposed by this change would cost card clubs millions, they claim.
However gaming tribes point out that the dictionary’s definition of “continuously” is pretty clear.
The rules that the card clubs are operating from sprang from a now-disgraced former chief of the Bureau of Gambling Control, Robert Lytle. He sent an advisory letter to card clubs just days before retiring from his position, and immediately becoming a consultant for a card club.
Lytle was later accused by Attorney General Kamala Harris of receiving confidential information about one of his clients from an agent he formerly oversaw when he was with the bureau. He agreed to give up his gaming licenses in order to avoid prosecution.
Ray Patterson, executive director of the Tribal Gaming Agency of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, told the Sacramento Bee: “We haven’t let up on this in four years, and we don’t plan on letting up anytime soon. We in no way feel that 60 minutes comes close to continuous.”
Like most gaming tribes, his tribe insists that gaming tribes are the only entities allowed to operate games banked by the house. So he wants the letter of the law enforced.
Jarhett Blonien, an attorney with Communities for California Card rooms, claims that the two-minute break will cost the casinos about $5 per hour per table, which, when multiplied by multiple tables in casinos operating 24/7 adds up to $750,000 a year for the average card room.
He told the Bee: “Basically, we think that what has occurred the past 15 years is legal and fine and defensible. We don’t feel that the new regulations are going to totally shut us down, but they’re definitely going to be a hindrance for the businesses.”
