iGaming Business – PokerStars and California’s Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the state’s three largest card rooms – the Commerce Club, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino and the Bicycle Casino, have confirmed their partnership that will see PokerStars supply and operate a California-licensed online poker site once regulation comes into force in the US’s most populous state.
News of the agreement between the different parties first came out in late March, its official announcement was made yesterday (Wednesday) to coincide with the hearing organised by California’s Assembly Committee on Governmental Organisation on intra-state online poker regulation.
The key issue in California’s regulatory debate centres on the ‘bad actor clause’ included in the poker bills that have been put forward so far. The clause would forbid companies such as PokerStars that continued to operate in the US after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006 from applying for a licence in the state.
Most of the other California tribes and their partners are in favour of the ‘bad actor’ measures included in the two bills, conscious of the fact that a Californian online poker market that includes PokerStars would be virtually impossible to live with in terms of competition.
Robert Martin, Tribal chairman for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, testified at yesterday’s hearing and strongly condemned the concept of the ‘bad actor clause’, saying it would limit and restrict the sector in California.
But representatives for the United Auburn Indian Community and Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians among others “repeatedly stressed the importance of maintaining the “integrity” of California’s gambling industry”, according to Online Poker Report.
The site added that “PokerStars was not mentioned once by name during the back-and-forth over bad actors despite being obviously central to the debate. All involved went to great lengths to refer obliquely to PokerStars, even if doing so was far more cumbersome than simply saying ‘PokerStars.’”
