Wait, what? Didn’t we just report that absolutely nothing happened in regards to online poker in the California legislature for the umpteenth consecutive year? We did. No bills will be passed that will legalize and regulate poker on the internet in the Golden State in 2014. But Californians may still be able to play online as early as next week. Thank the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel.
The Native American tribe, whose Reservation is approximately 20 miles northeast of San Diego near Lake Henshaw, already has a play money online poker site, PrivateTable.com, up and running, but feels strongly that it can legally offer real money poker without any change in the law of California. In a statement on the Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission website, the tribe firmly states:
In offering online gaming through Santa Ysabel Interactive, the Tribe is exerting its sovereign right under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to regulate and conduct Class II gaming from the tribe’s reservation. Class II gaming, as defined by IGRA, includes poker and bingo, but does not include slot-based games or house-banked games, such as blackjack. House-banked games and slot machines are defined as Class III games, and can only be offered in a tribal casino upon agreement with the state through a Tribal-State Gaming Compact. Santa Ysabel has had such a compact with the state since 2005, but has no plans to offer Class III gaming through its interactive website.
The tribe launched its online gaming offering about a month ago, criticizing potential internet gaming legislation in the state as benefiting only the richest tribes. “The current proposed legislation excludes all but the wealthiest gaming tribes from engaging in state-regulated online gaming,” said Santa Ysabel Interactive spokesman Dave Vialpando in a statement in July. “Smaller or remotely located tribes, like Santa Ysabel, would not be able to meet the financial prerequisites for participation in online gaming as currently proposed, in spite of their years of experience conducting and regulating brick-and-mortar Class II and Class III gaming.”
He added:
Many tribes feel that the current proposed legislation gives the state too much regulatory authority over tribal online gaming, an authority which historically has been the sole purview of tribal gaming regulators due to the Class II status of the games involved. The proposed legislation discounts and marginalizes years of successful and experienced regulation of tribal gaming in California in favor of relatively inexperienced state gaming regulators.
The tribe had hopes to launch real-money poker around the time of that statement, but it has not happened yet. In an interview published Friday on CardPlayer.com, though, Vialpando said that they are targeting between August 26th and 28th to get it going. He reiterated the tribe’s confidence that real-money online poker is permitted by IGRA and that the possibility of California legislation being reintroduced in December “doesn’t really affect our plans.”
When asked why other tribes haven’t done this before, Vialpando told CardPlayer that he has heard some of the smaller tribes were afraid that online gambling would cannibalize their brick-and-mortar casino business and that they were content with the money they were making from traditional casinos.
The tribe used to have a brick-and-mortar casino, but closed it in February. That did not necessarily have anything to do with Santa Ysabel’s online launch, though, as Vialpando said they have been planning this for two years.
PrivateTable.com uses the Winning Poker Network software.
if it wasn’t so painfull to witness it would be hilarious, this issue of online poker…here it is, an answer to reducing pollution, a source of income for the govt. that will rival taxes on tobacco etc. and all they can do is lollygag about it and play around with it so long to make it worthless