News

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 01:08

There is now more support for the proposals to make online poker legal in California as the Indian tribes throw their weight into the arena.

The race to become the very first US state to allow legalized online gambling seemed to have been won by New Jersey, but with reports that their governor may veto the bill, the race could be blown wide open again. This would put California back in the race for the prize as Senate Bill 40 proposed by Senator Lou Correa, which aims to regulate and allow state-based or tribal run casinos to run online poker gambling websites.

Now that this bill has the backing of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association after they voted in favour by nine votes to four over a similar bill proposed by Senator Roderick Wright that would allow online gambling in all forms in the state, it could be full steam ahead in attempting to get the bill past the state legislature. The result is good news for poker players in the state that like to play online, although Wright's bill would have provided more choice it seems the Indian tribes were not keen on too much online competition with their land based casinos.

It is no secret that the state's Indian tribes have over the years been spending millions of dollars in lobbying California's lawmakers to allow more forms of gambling. Joining that particular fight more recently has been a number of poker interest groups. It has also emerged that online poker has become one of American citizens' most popular forms of entertainment over the last decade.

The decision by the Indian tribes to back the poker bill can be seen as giving their support to the lesser of two evils as they still view all forms of Internet gambling as competition to their reservation casinos. However, they are well aware that this is a battle that needs to be fought within the state to ensure they have control of online gambling rather that allow the present situation where people are playing on illegal offshore sites to continue taking revenue that they could be gaining.

While the momentum for the two gambling bills is increasing with the additional support, it is still not known if either bill will get through the state legislature this year. Both Correa and Wright are confident they can get their respective bills through, but only time and the level of support and opposition that follows them will tell.