Legal e-poker for California still on track, PVA says
Legal online poker in California remains on course despite a split between gaming tribes over a new proposal to grant licences to card clubs, according to Poker Voters of America (PVA), the US lobby group coordinating the drive to legalise it.
LEGAL ONLINE poker in California remains on course despite a split between gaming tribes over a new proposal to grant licences to card clubs, according to Poker Voters of America (PVA), the US lobby group coordinating the drive to legalise it.
The split follows a letter last week from the California Tribal Business Alliance (CTBA), which represents the interests of seven of California’s 109 native American tribes, opposing the California Tribal Intrastate Internet Poker Consortium, a group comprised of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and several card rooms, from promoting a proposal to legalise intrastate poker through the California legislature before the end of the legislative year in September.
In the letter, the CTBA said that the proposal to potentially locate some sites off native American land violated native American rights compacts to offer casino gaming exclusively in the state, and would open the way for legal action from other companies seeking access to the market.
Lawyers representing the Morongo tribe heading the consortium countered by arguing that card games such as poker are not covered by the exclusivity agreements granted under California compact laws.
However Poker Voters of America executive director Melanie Brenner said that she was confident that the fracas would not lead to a repeat of last year, when the economic crisis and opposition from tribal organisations such as the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations led to the stalling of Congressman’s Lloyd Levine’s first online poker bill.
Speaking to EGRmagazine.com, Brenner said: “The tribes are too politically astute to know they can’t say ‘we want the exclusive on this,’ as they would be fighting the card club lobbyists [many of whom also advocate the legalisation on intrastate online poker] . One of the big steps for PVA was to get the tribes on board with the idea of online poker. To see they have gone from being resistant to saying, ‘this is such a good idea, but we have our idea of how to do it,’ shows that one of our major obstacles has been removed.”
However the brevity of the Morongo’s five-page proposal for what would be a complex piece of legislation, combined with strong opposition to the consortium from several other tribes, made it highly unlikely that the Morongo proposal could be forced through by September 11 as planned, Brenner added.