California’s gaming tribes fall into three groups over the question, according to reporter Dave Palermo on Pechanga.net. Some tribes want to enter the field with online partners, while other tribes are more interested with preventing non-tribal entities from expanding their gaming participation and protecting the tribal monopoly on Las Vegas type gaming. There is also considerable opposition to allowing racetracks to participate, although the participation of card rooms appears to be a given.
There used to be many more gaming tribes interested in participating, until they saw revenue figures from Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, where the online games are legal. Currently there are seven tribes who are actively pursuing online poker.
The fact that there is such a divergence of opinion among gaming tribes means that the enormous pressure such tribes can usually wield on lawmakers is being diffused.
The biggest roadblock to the legislation is the presence in both bills of “bad actor,” clauses that would prevent the participation of PokerStars with its partner the Morongo tribe, and the presence in one bill of a clause that would allow the participation of racetracks.
The Morongo tribe is allied with the San Manuel band and three card rooms, plus Amaya, which recently purchased PokerStars.
The Pechanga tribe, which operates a casino in Riverside County, and the Agua Caliente tribe, which operates a casino in the Coachella Valley, strongly oppose racetrack participation. They are also opponents of taking out the “bad actor” clause that would prevent participation by gaming sites that took U.S. wagers despite the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The obvious target of this clause is PokerStars.
“No i-poker in California is the clearly preferable option” to legislation licensing tracks and “bad actor” companies, said Agua Caliente Chairman Jeff Grubbe recently.
The bill Grubbe referred to is AB 167, authored by Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, which has both the “bad actor” clause and the ability to license racetracks.
Mike Gatto is the author of AB 9, which also includes the “bad actor” clause, but doesn’t allow participation by the racetracks.
Although online gaming is not allowed yet in the Golden State, the Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, in San Diego County, became the first tribe to offer internet gaming—in New Jersey.
Pala, along with its allies the United Auburn Indian Community and the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, wants to launch online operations in California. They don’t necessarily oppose the participation by racetracks, and in fact accept that they may be necessary to forge a winning coalition in the legislature.
And just last week, the leaders of the Rincon and Pala bands of Luiseño Indians and United Auburn Indian Community sent a letter to Gatto and Jones-Sawyer. The letter was also penned by three Los Angeles-area card rooms and PokerStars/Amaya, and it recommended allowing racetracks to be included in any iPoker legislation.
Rincon Chairman Bo Mazzetti said the tribes must be realistic.
“There’s no question the race tracks have to be eligible for licensing,” Mazzetti said. “That’s from the governor’s office. It’s going to be in there or there’s no bill.”
The letter also made an argument for licensing of PokerStars, which was bought by Amaya last year and the original owners who conducted “unauthorized” online gambling left the company.
“If a company that engaged in unauthorized gaming changed ownership, regulators would be able to review the effect of that change in ownership under the bill’s standard,” the letter said.
