Convincing California lawmakers that playing poker online is a good thing is no easy task, but the launch of free play poker sites has certainly raised the stakes.

With a field poll that was conducted in September showing that legalised online poker is supported by 53 percent of California's voters, several interested groups have upped the stakes to press home this advantage. Earlier in the year, the proposals for legalised in-state online gambling were stalled and there needed to be a way of graphically showing lawmakers how popular online poker really is. The Indian tribes have found it in launching free-to-play poker websites.

The California Online Poker Association (COPA), which is a group of Indian tribes that own and run card rooms and land based casinos sponsored the ill fated Senate Bill 40 which was to make online poker a legal activity for California citizens. The group includes the Morongo and San Manuel bands of Indians who are already well known for their support of online gambling. Their own website, which was launched on Monday is calshark.com, which features Texas hold'em and Omaha games. They claim it can provide poker players all over the world a playing experience that will match live online games on their home computers.

A spokesman for COPA, Ryan Hightower, said that the launch of their own free play Poker website will serve as a working example to lawmakers of how popular online poker really is in the state. It will also provide a working demonstration of how a gambling version of the site would work. 

Last month saw the release of a free to play poker game on the website of the Barona Tribe's casino, while other tribes are busily developing their own free play poker sites. The only tribes not developing their own sites for this purpose are those that belong to the California Tribal Business Alliance which opposed SB 40. Their reason for opposing it was because they were excluded from the potential financial spoils that legalised online gambling could bring.

There is a definite long term goal behind the release of such websites, as free sites obviously don't make any money for the tribes or their casinos. What they do is create a recognisable brand in the online gambling world while growing a database of players who want to play for free. In time those players will become confident enough to want to play real money games. If and when the law changes, those free sites will be able to switch on the paying version of their games and have a huge membership of willing partakers already on board.