California Intrastate Online Poker Debate Pushed to January 2010

The push for legalized intra-state online gambling in California which has been pitting Indian tribes against one another has been pushed ahead to 2010.

Southern California’s Morongo Band of Mission Indians were driving this campaign, and it is they who have put on the brakes temporarily.

According to a story in the local paper, the Palm Springs Desert Sun, the tribe didn’t want to just rush their agenda through state congress without giving due consideration to the serious concerns brought up by the Indian-run land-based poker rooms and gambling establishment who oppose the measure, such as the Pechanga Band in Temecula.

The goal is to come up with a revised measure that addresses everyone’s concerns and that everyone involved can get behind. That is the strategy the Morongo Band of Mission Indians is expecting will be most likely to produce results that work for everyone, from California’s online poker players to the land-based establishments they’d likely be competing against.

The biggest issue for the opposition is that the bill calls for the establishment of a California Tribal Intrastate Internet Poker Consortium that will retain all the rights license and regulate California intrastate online gambling.

Other California tribal gambling institutions involved in the debate, like the California Tribal Business Alliance and the Poker Voters of America (PVA) are relieved that they’ll have more time to review all the details in the measure. Given enough time to do that, these adversaries of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians on the issue of legal intrastate online poker and casino gambling in California could turn into allies.

The issue will be readdressed in January of 2010.