By Chris Nichols
SACRAMENTO — Will 2015 be the year California legalizes online poker?
Two lawmakers at the state Capitol are betting big that it will be.
But their competing bills, introduced early this session, show there’s still strong disagreement about which industry players should control and benefit from the popular, and lucrative, business.
Candidates include card clubs, Indian tribes, race tracks and out-of-state gaming companies.
Lawmakers and these groups have failed for nearly a decade to craft rules for who should control state-regulated poker sites and how much they should pay to do so. During this time, thousands of California poker players have migrated to playing online through unauthorized, often untrustworthy sites based overseas, letting industry and tax money slip away.
With hundreds of millions in revenue at stake, potential operators including San Diego County’s Indian tribes want action, not more delay.
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The Pala Band of Mission Indians, based in North San Diego County, established an Internet poker website for New Jersey residents last fall, becoming the first tribe to break into the online gaming market. A spokesman for the tribe declined comment for this article.
While Pala is considered among the most aggressive on the topic, many other tribes are eager to play a hand in online poker.
1 comment:
What do you mean the Pala Tribe? Don't you mean the Pala EC. The Pala Tribe is kept in the dark on most of the EC's adventures in the gamming parts.
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