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Senator To File New California Online Poker Legislation, Expects Objections From Tribes

Posted on May 14th, 2010

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Senator Rod Wright of Inglewood, California said he will file a new bill that would legalize intrastate online poker in California. The renowned legislator announced this piece of information while speaking at the Global iGaming Summit and Expo (GiGSE) in Montreal this week. In February, Wright conducted an informational hearing on the online poker issue in Sacramento that lasted for nine hours. He is now drafting language for this new legislation with the help of legislative assistants.

Wright said he will introduce the new measure within two weeks and he expects many obstacles and disagreements over the bill, particularly from the Indian tribes. He has challenged the tribes to take legal action if they regard the new bill as a violation of the agreements the state signed with the tribes. California gambling law prohibits casino games and lotteries. The only forms of gambling allowed by the state are the state lottery, bingo and those that fall under the category of class III games at the tribal casinos. In 1999, California entered into compacts with the different Indian tribes in the state granting the tribes exclusive rights to operate Las Vegas style class III gaming machines, in exchange for the state getting a large share from revenues.

Wright said there are 68 Indian tribes in California which have exclusivity over class III games by way of separate agreements. He said the first dispute that would be started by the bill will be whether playing poker on the Internet would amount to a violation of the compacts made with the tribes or not. He said the tribes do not even have a common view among themselves on the exclusivity question, therefore, he believes it could take two or three years for that argument to be resolved. But the tribes argue that legalizing a state-regulated online poker system would break the compact as it would be tantamount to putting gaming devices on millions of computers throughout California.

Alison Harvey, executive director of the California Tribal Business Alliance (CTBA), who also spoke at the Summit, told GamblingCompliance, “The senator has said there are five different versions of exclusivity – but there are 68 tribes each with their own compact. You can’t just group the tribes together.” The CTBA, whose association is composed of six gaming tribes, has also blocked an earlier move made last year by the Morongo Tribe proposing for the introduction of Internet poker. The group has also complained that Rep. Barney Frank has not made any real consultations with the tribes concerning his proposed federal regulation of online gambling, although CTBA has not formally announced its official stance on Frank’s legislation.