Although 10 states, including California are now discussing legalizing online poker, the chances of it happening in the Golden State this year are once again in doubt.
As of now, only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legalized iPoker. For several years, it looked like California was going to be the fourth. However, California Nations Indian Gaming Association Chairman Steve Stallings gives the chances of a successful bill coming out of the legislature at less than 50-50.
An effort that seemed full speed ahead a few years ago appears to have run out of steam. In part, the reason is that PokerStars, the largest poker website in the world, has turned its attention elsewhere.
PokerStars has been part of a coalition that included several gaming tribes, including the Morongo Band and the San Manuel Band, plus the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, Commerce Casino and Bicycle casino card clubs. Because of PokerStars’ brush with the U.S. Justice Department over its alleged violations of U.S. law, several other gaming tribes have strenuously opposed it being allowed to participate in California online gaming.
They believed that when PokerStars allowed U.S. citizens to play on its offshore sites that it built up a customer list that would be very hard for newcomers to compete against. This would create an uneven playing field from the get go, they argue.
This created an impasse, with those opposed to PokerStars unable to push through a bill that excluded them, and those who want to work with PokerStars also unable to power through a bill that included them.
This year PokerStars saw one of its allies, the Bicycle, badly wounded when state and federal law enforcement shut it down for a day due to an investigation of money laundering at the casino. This can’t help but taint PokerStars’s efforts.
At the same time, Canada-based Amaya, which owns PokerStars, is now being investigated because of allegations that its former chairman and CEO David Baazov engaged in insider trading.
However, PokerStars itself has widened its focus, trying to expand into online gaming besides poker.
PokerStars hasn’t officially dropped its efforts to legalize iPoker, and the goal is still very tempting: an estimated $4 billion market.
