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Cabazon Tribe’s Free Online Game May Be Sign Of Tribe Venturing Into Online Gaming

Posted on June 14th, 2010

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An Indian tribe in California may be hinting at plans of entering into the online poker venture. The Fantasy Springs Resort Casino owned by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians has highlighted a new “Free Video Poker” on its website, which connects to the IGT-linked VideoPoker.com website, which is owned and operated by Action Gaming. International Gaming Technology (IGT) is a manufacturer of slot machines and is the exclusive distributor of Action Gaming technology. VideoPoker.com offers free games and a wide array of poker games. The site charges a monthly subscription rate of $5.95 and offers games with prizes like a three-night stay in a condominium in Las Vegas. Around 190,462 members have said to have visited the site as of Friday.

But Katie Reil, spokeswoman for IGT, said everything done on the site is legal and all for fun with no online gaming involved. William Thompson, a gaming analyst and a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said Nevada-based IGT is a company that can be trusted and one that is very cautious when it comes to obeying the law. Thompson also said the video poker sites of Fantasy Springs seem likely to be plain advertising and marketing, which is allowed by law. It also looks like it’s an attempt to advance online poker in California, Thompson added.

A law in the United States bans online gambling and the monetary transfer of online wagering through banks and other financial institutions. Cheryl Schmidt, director of a watchdog organization on the gambling industry in the state, Stand Up for California, said the site appears to be a means used by the casino to help players learn to play poker and visit their casino. But Schmidt said it could also mean that the site is preparing to teach people to play the game online so that when intrastate online gambling becomes legal, the tribe’s site would have more customers playing online. Or it may also mean the tribe wants to show their capability in operating online gaming and to prove that there is demand for it, Schmidt added.

The Rev. Jim Butler, chief executive of the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, said the state has given the tribes special gambling privileges, that to think they would encourage online poker is disheartening and they would seem to be abusing their rights. Fantasy Springs spokeswoman Ciara Coyle said the Cabazon Band would not issue a statement on the tribe’s stand on Internet poker, however, she said the casino has no underlying intent on offering the free poker game. She explained the link was set up because the tribe has 30 Action Gaming machines in Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and this is a service that IGT grants to their customers.

Fantasy Springs is not the only one that supplies customers to VideoPoker.com site. The website of Colusa Casino Resort in Northern California can also be linked to the poker site. spokesman for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Patrick Dorinson said the tribe’s site shows the people’s eagerness to visit the site to learn the procedures of Internet poker. The Morongo tribe had earlier pushed for intrastate online gaming in California. U.S. Congressmen Barney Frank, D-Mass. and Jim McDermott, D-Wash. have filed and vigorously endorsed bills that would legalize, regulate and tax Internet gambling in the country. Frank’s bill will have a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee of which Frank sits as chairman, in July.

On the state level, State Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood has introduced Senate Bill 1485 that would legalize intrastate Internet poker sites in California to help fix the roughly $20 billion budget shortfall. A tentative hearing date is set for June 22. Wright’s proposal would authorize the state’s Department of Justice to issue up to three licenses to California-based gambling operators to run the Internet poker sites to be made available to residents within the state.