California’s lawmakers are in the midst of discussing a bill that would legalize iPoker in the Golden State. Such bills have been introduced before, but this is the first time one has gotten so far along.
On April 27 the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee voted to move the bill forward by a 20-0 vote.
The chairman of the Rincon tribe, Bo Mazzetti, who has been urging compromise and allowing more players to participate in offering iPoker, praised the committee’s action.
Calling it an “historic day,” Mazzetti declared, “The Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians is optimistic that this is the year for internet poker in California. After five years of debates, some of the heavy lifting of crafting legislation has been done.”
Several interest groups are clashing this year, including Indian gaming tribes, card clubs and racetracks, who all want a piece of the action. But new to the discussion and the chest thumping are several power unions, who say they have the power to shut down the bill unless they get want the want.
Some suggest that rather than writing certain operators out of the law (as the “bad actor” clause supported by some tribes would do) that the law should leave it up to regulators to decide who is qualified to obtain a license.
The gaming provider in the gun sights here is PokerStars, owned by Amaya. Because of previous clashes with the U.S. Justice Department before Amaya purchased it, some tribes assert that PokerStars, coincidentally the biggest provider of online poker in the world, should not sit at the table.
However, one group of tribes is absolutely determined to prevent racetracks from participating because poker is not a natural extension of a racetrack’s activities, although it certainly is a form of gambling, as is wagering on horses.
Supporters of the tracks argue that all participants would be offering the games through a third party and that racetracks shouldn’t be prevented from hiring those contractors.
The racetrack supporters include several powerful unions, including the SEIU, which says it can keep any kind of bill from passing unless racetracks are allowed to play.
Barry Broad, a lobbyist for Service Employee International Union (SEIU), recently called gaming tribes a “a kind of paper tiger.” He told Online Poker Report that a bill is not going to happen without racetracks, despite statements by a coalition led by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians whose chairman, Mark Macarro recently stated “We look forward to a meaningful process and arriving at comprehensive legislation that respects California’s longstanding public policy of limited gaming.”
“Limited gaming,” Macarro says, would be violated by letting just anyone offer it. Like racetracks.
Macarro has suggested that his coalition team up with about a dozen other tribes to lock out the racetracks.
As powerful as gaming tribes are, they have picked a powerful group to target. California’s racetrack industry employs 50,000 people who live in almost every legislative district.
As Broad put it, “It would be very hard to move a bill out with a two-thirds vote that doesn’t include the tracks. They’re not going to get a two-thirds vote. They’re not. These are some very big unions.”
A two-thirds vote is required in the legislature to adopt any bill that has financial consequences. Broad thinks that the number of tribes who want a bill outnumbers the Pechanga coalition by quite a bit. “There are only a few tribes that are opposed to the tracks,” he told
Meanwhile, a court decision in Wisconsin could have ripple effects on online poker debates elsewhere, including in the Golden State.
The Ho-Chunk tribe in Wisconsin wants to offer video-based poker games and to call them Class II games as defined by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
The Ho-Chunks has six tribal casinos in the state. It claims that several poker related games that it offers on slot machines should be defined as Class II and is involved in a federal lawsuit.
In 2014 U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the games the Ho-Chunk offers are Class III, but that decision was just overturned by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the tribes can offer the games. The only way the state can stop it is to ban all poker games, said the panel.
Californians are interested because of the efforts by the San Diego County-based Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel to offer real money bingo and the announced plans to eventually offer online real money poker.
That, in turn, is tied to a current bill in the California legislature to legalize iPoker.
